''Cepaea'' is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

of medium-sized air-breathing land snails,

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 ...

s in the family

Helicidae Helicidae is a large, diverse family (biology), family of small to large, air-breathing land snails, sometimes called the "typical snails." A number of species in this family are valued as food items, including ''Cornu aspersum'' (formerly ''Heli ...

. The shells of species within this genus are often brightly colored and patterned with stripes. The two species from this genus, the common and widespread ''C. nemoralis'' and ''C. hortensis'', have been model species for early studies of genetics and natural selection. They occur in Europe, although introduced populations occur elsewhere in the world. Like many Helicidae, this genus of snails create and use

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 ...

Species

For a long time, four species were classified in the genus ''Cepaea''. Cepaea hortensis and Cepaea vindobonensis

However, molecular phylogenetic studies suggested that the latter two should be placed in the unrelated genera ''Macularia'' and ''Caucasotachea'': * ''

Cepaea hortensis The white-lipped snail or garden banded snail, scientific name ''Cepaea hortensis'', is a medium-sized species of air-breathing land snail, a terrestrial molluscs, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusc in the family Helicidae. It is a close rel ...

'' (O. F. Müller, 1774) – white-lipped snail or garden banded snail * ''

Cepaea nemoralis The grove snail, brown-lipped snail or Lemon snail (''Cepaea nemoralis'') is a species of air-breathing land snail, a terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusc. MolluscaBase eds. (2020). MolluscaBase. Cepaea nemoralis (Linnaeus, 1758). Accessed thr ...

'' (Linnaeus, 1758) – brown-lipped snail or grove snail * '' Cepaea sylvatica'' (Draparnaud, 1801), now ''Macularia sylvatica'' * '' Cepaea vindobonensis'' (Férussac, 1821), now ''Caucasotachea vindobonensis''

Species

References

Further reading