''Elona quimperiana'', common name the escargot de Quimper ("Quimper snail"), is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

of air-breathing land snail, a

terrestrial Terrestrial refers to things related to land or the planet Earth. 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 or near the ground, as opposed to ...

pulmonate gastropod

mollusk Mollusca is the second-largest phylum of invertebrate animals after the Arthropoda, the members of which are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 85,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized. The number of fossil species is e ...

in the family

Elonidae Elonidae is a family of air-breathing land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropods mollusks in the superfamily Helicoidea. This family is within the clade Eupulmonata (according to the taxonomy of the Gastropoda by Bouchet & Rocroi, 2005). ...

. ''Elona'' is a

monotypic genus In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispec ...

, i.e. it contains only one species, ''Elona quimperiana''. The specific name comes from the city of

Quimper Quimper (, ; br, Kemper ; la, Civitas Aquilonia or ) is a commune and prefecture of the Finistère department of Brittany in northwestern France. Administration Quimper is the prefecture (capital) of the Finistère department. Geography Th ...

Brittany Brittany (; french: link=no, Bretagne ; br, Breizh, or ; Gallo: ''Bertaèyn'' ) is a peninsula, historical country and cultural area in the west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica during the period ...

, France. This snail is mentioned in annexes II and IV of the

Habitats Directive The Habitats Directive (more formally known as Council Directive 92/43/EEC on the Conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora) is a directive adopted by the European Community in 1992 as a response to the Berne Convention. The E ...

Original description

''Elona quimperiana'' was originally described (under the name ''Helix quimperiana'') by

André Étienne d'Audebert de Férussac Baron André Étienne Justin Pascal Joseph François d'Audebert de Férussac (30 December 1786 – 21 January 1836) was a French naturalist best known for his studies of molluscs. (Two of his given names are sometimes spelt Just or Juste instead o ...

in 1821. Férussac's original text (the

type description A species description is a formal description of a newly discovered species, usually in the form of a scientific paper. Its purpose is to give a clear description of a new species of organism and explain how it differs from species that have be ...

) reads in the French language as follows: Which means in English: "Habitat: Margin of Briec (Briec-de-l'Odet) near

. It was found by Messieurs De Kermovan and Bonnemaison."

Shell description

The

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 ** Thin-shell structure Science Biology * Seashell, a hard o ...

is umbilicate and planorboid in shape. The

spire A spire is a tall, slender, pointed structure on top of a roof of a building or tower, especially at the summit of church steeples. A spire may have a square, circular, or polygonal plan, with a roughly conical or pyramidal shape. Spires a ...

is slightly concave. The periphery is broadly rounded, corneous with a few varicoid white stripes. The shell has five or six

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). Whorls in nature File:Photograph and axial plane floral ...

. The

aperture In optics, an aperture is a hole or an opening through which light travels. More specifically, the aperture and focal length of an optical system determine the cone angle of a bundle of rays that come to a focus in the image plane. An ...

is lunar and slightly oblique. The lip is white, expanded above, reflexed below, with the ends distant. The width of the shell is 20–30 mm. The height of the shell is 10–12 mm. Kerney M.P., Cameron R.A.D. & Jungbluth J.H. (1983). ''Die Landschnecken Nord- und Mitteleuropas.'' Hamburg/Berlin, 384 pp., page 242-243. File:Elona quimperiana shell.jpg, apical view File:Elona quimperiana shell 2.jpg, apertural view File:Elona quimperiana shell 3.jpg, umbilical view

Anatomy

The jaw has 11-16 narrow ribs. The anatomy of ''Elona quimperiana'' was described in detail by Alfred Moquin-Tandon already in 1855-1856 and later by Gittenberger (1979).Gittenberger E. (1979). ''On Elona (Pulmonata, Eloniadae fam. nov.)'
Malacologia Volume 18, 1-2
Sixth European Malacological Congress, Amsterdam
139
145.

Reproductive system The reproductive system of an organism, also known as the genital system, is the biological system made up of all the anatomical organs involved in sexual reproduction. Many non-living substances such as fluids, hormones, and pheromones are als ...

: the genitalia have club-shaped mucous glands, in other words, the mucous glands are shortened into somewhat rounded triangular sacks. Mucous glands shaped like this are unusual in the

Helicoidea Helicoidea is a taxonomic superfamily of air-breathing land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusks in the clade Stylommatophora. Taxonomy 2005 taxonomy There are 19 families within the superfamily Helicoidea according to the ta ...

, but are typical of the Elonidae. The dart sack is inserted in a sort of calyx at base. The

love dart A love dart (also known as a gypsobelum, shooting darts, or just as darts) is a sharp, calcareous or chitinous dart which some hermaphroditic land snails and slugs create. Love darts are both formed and stored internally in a dart sac. These ...

is curved at the end, with lens-like section.
Drawing of reproductive system by Gittenberger 1979
)

Distribution

This species is found in France and Spain. The Lusitanian snail ''Elona quimperiana'' has a remarkably disjunct distribution, limited to northwestern France (

), northwestern Spain and the Basque Country.

Habitat

This species lives in temperate and humid deciduous forests.

Life cycle

Like other pulmonates, snails and slugs, the Quimper snail is hermaphrodite. Sexual maturity is reached at about two years of age. Mating takes place at mid-season and laying, usually underground, is deposited in tiny natural tunnels of the soil. There are two annual breeding periods in Brittany, with hatching occurring in the spring (April–May) and in the fall (September–October).

Feeding habits

This species of snail feeds on mycelia found on rotten, dead stumps (principally oak). Occasionally, it is

coprophagous Coprophagia () or coprophagy () is the consumption of feces. The word is derived from the grc, κόπρος , "feces" and , "to eat". Coprophagy refers to many kinds of feces-eating, including eating feces of other species (heterospecifics), of ...

and

necrophagous Scavengers are animals that consume dead organisms that have died from causes other than predation or have been killed by other predators. While scavenging generally refers to carnivores feeding on carrion, it is also a herbivorous feeding b ...

. Like many other terrestrial gastropods, ''Elona quimperiana'' has a relatively limited dispersal capacity and probably survived during the Quaternary

glaciation A glacial period (alternatively glacial or glaciation) is an interval of time (thousands of years) within an ice age that is marked by colder temperatures and glacier advances. Interglacials, on the other hand, are periods of warmer climate be ...

s through significant fluctuations in its distribution area, just as its deciduous forest habitat did.

References

This article incorporates CC-BY-2.0 text (but not under

GFDL The GNU Free Documentation License (GNU FDL or simply GFDL) is a copyleft license for free documentation, designed by the Free Software Foundation (FSF) for the GNU Project. It is similar to the GNU General Public License, giving readers the ...

) from reference Vialatte A., Guiller A., Bellido A. & Madec L. (2008). "Phylogeography and historical demography of the Lusitanian snail ''Elona quimperiana'' reveal survival in unexpected separate glacial refugia". ''

BMC Evolutionary Biology ''BMC Ecology and Evolution'' (since January 2021), previously ''BMC Evolutionary Biology'' (2001–2020), is a peer-reviewed open access scientific journal covering all fields of evolutionary biology, including phylogenetics and palaeontology ...

'' 2008, 8:339. . and a public domain text from references. Tryon G. W. (1894). ''

Manual of Conchology George Washington Tryon Jr. (20 May 1838 – 5 February 1888) was an American malacologist who worked at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. Biography George Washington Tryon was the son of Edward K. Tryon and Adeline Savidt. ...

, structural and systematic, with illustrations of the species. Second series: Pulmonata''
Volume 9
Helicidae - Volume VII. Continued by H. A. Pilsbry
page 307
308.

External links

* https://web.archive.org/web/20090526180159/http://natura2000.environnement.gouv.fr/especes/1007.html#hautpage {{DEFAULTSORT:Escargot De Quimper Elonidae Quimper Gastropods described in 1821 Taxonomy articles created by Polbot