Cepaea hortensis
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The white-lipped snail or garden banded snail,
scientific name In Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin gramm ...
''Cepaea hortensis'', is a large
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 ...
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 ...
in the family Helicidae. The only other species in the genus is ''
Cepaea nemoralis The grove snail, brown-lipped snail or lemon snail (''Cepaea nemoralis'') is a species of air-breathing land snail, a terrestrial molluscs, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusc. It is one of the most common large species of land snail in Euro ...
''.


Shell description

''Cepaea hortensis'' has 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 ...
up to in diameter, tending to be slightly smaller than ''C. nemoralis''. The umbilicus is closed in adults, but narrowly open in juveniles. Although the shells of ''C. hortensis'' are most commonly yellow, they exhibit a range of background colours from brown through pink to pale yellow, and up to five brown bands may be present, some of which may fuse with their neighbours. This polymorphism, which is shared with ''Cepaea nemoralis'', has been the subject of considerable research.


Identification

In most areas adults of ''C. hortensis'' can be distinguished by the pale colouration of the
lip The lips are a horizontal pair of soft appendages attached to the jaws and are the most visible part of the mouth of many animals, including humans. Mammal lips are soft, movable and serve to facilitate the ingestion of food (e.g. sucklin ...
around the shell
aperture In optics, the aperture of an optical system (including a system consisting of a single lens) is the hole or opening that primarily limits light propagated through the system. More specifically, the entrance pupil as the front side image o ...
, whereas it is typically brown in ''C. nemoralis''. But in some areas (e.g. Ireland, Pyrenees) ''C. nemoralis'' can have a white lip, and ''C. hortensis'' can rarely have a brown lip. More certain characters require dissection. A cross-section of the
love dart A love dart (also known as a gypsobelum, shooting darts, or just as darts) is a sharp, calcium carbonate, calcareous or chitinous Dart (missile), dart which some hermaphroditic land snails and slugs create. Love darts are both formed and stor ...
of ''C. hortensis'' shows a cross with bifurcated blades, whereas that of ''C. nemoralis'' is a simple cross. The mucous gland has 4 or more branches in ''C. hortensis'', but 3 or fewer branches in ''C. nemoralis''. ''
Caucasotachea vindobonensis ''Caucasotachea vindobonensis'' is a large species of air-breathing land snail, a terrestrial molluscs, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod in the family Helicidae. The scientific name is derived from the Celtic settlement Vindobona, now known as ...
'' and '' Macularia sylvatica'' are two superficially similar species formerly mistakenly included in the genus ''Cepaea''. Both have a lip that is brown near the
columella Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella (, Arabic: ) was a prominent Roman writer on agriculture in the Roman Empire. His in twelve volumes has been completely preserved and forms an important source on Roman agriculture and ancient Roman cuisin ...
becoming pale towards the suture, and they have fine growth ridges on the shell whereas in both ''Cepaea'' species it is smooth.


Distribution

The
native Native may refer to: People * '' Jus sanguinis'', nationality by blood * '' Jus soli'', nationality by location of birth * Indigenous peoples, peoples with a set of specific rights based on their historical ties to a particular territory ** Nat ...
distribution of this species is
Western Europe Western Europe is the western region of Europe. The region's extent varies depending on context. The concept of "the West" appeared in Europe in juxtaposition to "the East" and originally applied to the Western half of the ancient Mediterranean ...
and
Central Europe Central Europe is a geographical region of Europe between Eastern Europe, Eastern, Southern Europe, Southern, Western Europe, Western and Northern Europe, Northern Europe. Central Europe is known for its cultural diversity; however, countries in ...
. Also its occurrence along the coast of northeastern North America should be considered native, since archaeological deposits reveal it to have been present at least 7850 years ago, so before the presence of
Viking Vikings were seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway, and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded, and settled throughout parts of Europe.Roesdahl, pp. 9â ...
explorers. The range of ''C. hortensis'' extends further north in Scotland than that of ''C. nemoralis'' and it is the only ''Cepaea'' species in Iceland and northern parts of Scandinavia (up to 67° 30' N). Conversely, the southern limit of ''C. hortensis'' is also further north: in Spain it occurs only in the north-east and it is absent from Italy. ''Cepaea hortensis'' has been recently introduced to the Moscow region of Russia and to Ukraine, but has not established itself as widely as ''C. nemoralis''. It reaches an altitude of 2050 m in the Swiss Alps.


Habitat

The two ''Cepaea'' species share many of the same habitats, such as woods, dunes and grassland, but the white-lipped snail tolerates wetter and colder areas.


Life cycle

This species of snail creates and uses
love dart A love dart (also known as a gypsobelum, shooting darts, or just as darts) is a sharp, calcium carbonate, calcareous or chitinous Dart (missile), dart which some hermaphroditic land snails and slugs create. Love darts are both formed and stor ...
s during mating. The size of the egg is 2 mm.Heller J. 2001: ''Life History Strategies''. in Barker G. M. (ed.):
The biology of terrestrial molluscs
'. CABI Publishing, Oxon, UK, 2001, . 1-146, cited page: 428.


References


External links


''Cepaea hortensis''
at
Animalbase AnimalBase is a project brought to life in 2004 and is maintained by the University of Göttingen, Germany. The goal of the AnimalBase project is to digitize early zoological literature, provide copyright-free open access to zoological works, and p ...
taxonomy, short description, distribution, biology, status (threats), images
''Cepaea hortensis''
images at
Encyclopedia of Life The Encyclopedia of Life (EOL) is a free, online encyclopedia intended to document all of the 1.9 million living species known to science. It aggregates content to form "pages" for every known species. Content is compiled from existing trusted ...

Images of shell variations in ''C. hortensis''
{{Taxonbar, from=Q427854 Helicidae Gastropods described in 1774