The boreal top or boreal top snail (''Zoogenetes harpa'') is
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 minute, 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 ...
s,
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 ...
mollusc
Mollusca is a phylum of protostome, protostomic invertebrate animals, whose members are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 76,000 extant taxon, extant species of molluscs are recognized, making it the second-largest animal phylum ...
s in the family
Valloniidae
Valloniidae is a taxonomic family of small and minute, air-breathing land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusks in the superfamily Pupilloidea.MolluscaBase eds. (2020). MolluscaBase. Valloniidae Morse, 1864. Accessed through: World ...
, and the sole species in the genus ''Zoogenetes''.
''Z. harpa'' occurs in the northern United States, across Canada, as well as in Scandinavia, the Swiss Alps, Russia, and Japan.
Description, habitat, and status
The boreal top snail is
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 minute, 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 ...
s,
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 ...
mollusc
Mollusca is a phylum of protostome, protostomic invertebrate animals, whose members are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 76,000 extant taxon, extant species of molluscs are recognized, making it the second-largest animal phylum ...
s in the family
Valloniidae
Valloniidae is a taxonomic family of small and minute, air-breathing land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusks in the superfamily Pupilloidea.MolluscaBase eds. (2020). MolluscaBase. Valloniidae Morse, 1864. Accessed through: World ...
. They are generally about in length as an adult.
It is the sole species in the genus ''Zoogenetes''.
Its cone-shaped shell is reddish-brown, with ridges along the bottom spirals.
''Z. harpa'' is most active during fall and spring, when temperatures are more mild and moisture levels are higher.
It lives on the bottom of logs and debris, often near or at the bottom of canyons with predominantly fir forests.
The snail is not considered generally endangered, though populations in some locations are considered threatened to varying degrees.
Distribution
''Z. harpa'' occurs in the northern United States and across Canada,
and was discovered in the
Uinta Mountains
The Uinta Mountains ( ) are an east-west trending mountain range in northeastern Utah extending a short distance into northwest Colorado and slightly into southwestern Wyoming in the United States. As a subrange of the Rocky Mountains, they are u ...
in northeastern Utah in April 2021, where it is now considered "likely native".
It is also found in Scandinavia, Russia, the Swiss Alps, and Japan.
Predators
Predators of ''Z. harpa'' include small mammals, insects, and birds such as wild turkeys and grouse.
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q3738186
Valloniidae