''Merdigera obscura'' is a

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

of air-breathing

land snail A land snail is any of the numerous species of snail that live on land, as opposed to the sea snails and freshwater snails. ''Land snail'' is the common name for terrestrial molluscs, terrestrial gastropod mollusks that have gastropod shell, shel ...

, a

terrestrial Terrestrial refers to things related to land or the planet Earth, as opposed to extraterrestrial. Terrestrial may also refer to: * Terrestrial animal, an animal that lives on land opposed to living in water, or sometimes an animal that lives on o ...

pulmonate Pulmonata or pulmonates is an informal group (previously an order, and before that, a subclass) of snails and slugs characterized by the ability to breathe air, by virtue of having a pallial lung instead of a gill, or gills. The group inclu ...

gastropod Gastropods (), commonly known as slugs and snails, belong to a large Taxonomy (biology), taxonomic class of invertebrates within the phylum Mollusca called Gastropoda (). This class comprises snails and slugs from saltwater, freshwater, and fro ...

mollusk Mollusca is a phylum of protostomic invertebrate animals, whose members are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 76,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized, making it the second-largest animal phylum after Arthropoda. The ...

in the family

Enidae Enidae is a family of air-breathing land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusks.MolluscaBase eds. (2020). MolluscaBase. Enidae B. B. Woodward, 1903 (1880). Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at: http://www.marinespecies ...

Distribution and habitat

This species is present in north-western Africa and in most of Europe from Portugal to Russia.Animal Base
/ref> These terrestrial molluscs prefers shady and rocky environments in deciduous forests, at an elevation of above sea level. They can be found mainly at tree trunks, under leaf litter or stones and on walls. They prefer shady and rocky environments in deciduous forests, at an elevation of above sea level. They can be found mainly at tree trunks, under leaf litter or stones and on walls.

Description

''Merdigera obscura'' can reach a

shell Shell may refer to: Architecture and design * Shell (structure), a thin structure ** Concrete shell, a thin shell of concrete, usually with no interior columns or exterior buttresses Science Biology * Seashell, a hard outer layer of a marine ani ...

length of about 8.5–10.5 x 3–4 mm. These shells have 6 slightly convex

whorls A whorl ( or ) is an individual circle, oval, volution or equivalent in a whorled pattern, which consists of a spiral or multiple concentric objects (including circles, ovals and arcs). In nature File:Photograph and axial plane floral diagram ...

with deep suture. The

apertural The aperture is an opening in certain kinds of mollusc shells: it is the main opening of the shell, where the head-foot part of the body of the animal emerges for locomotion, feeding, etc. The term ''aperture'' is used for the main opening in g ...

margin is reflected and white, not connected by a callus or white layer at the parietal side. The shell colour is evenly brown. The surface has dense radially striations. The animal is dark brown, lighter laterally and on the foot. The upper tentacles are long, the lower tentacles length is 1/4 of upper tentacles. The animal crawls with the shell in a very high position and not much bent to the right side. Juveniles and adults often have camouflage. This species is rather similar to ''

Ena montana ''Ena montana'' is a species of air-breathing land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod molluscs in the family Enidae. Distribution This species occurs in European countries and islands including* List of non-marine molluscs of the Czech ...

''.

Biology

Females lay 12–20 oval eggs between May and October. Juveniles hatch after 2 weeks. Adults can be found in the first months of the second year.iNaturalist
/ref>

Bibliography

*Anderson, R. 2005. An Annotated List of the Non-Marine Mollusca of Britain and Ireland. InvertebrateIreland Online, Ulster Museum, Belfast and National Museum of Ireland, Dublin *Kerney, M, 1999, Atlas of the Land and Freshwater Molluscs of Britain and Ireland, Harley Books,

References

Enidae Gastropods described in 1774 Taxa named by Otto Friedrich Müller {{Enidae-stub

Distribution and habitat

Description

Biology

See also

Bibliography

References