''Acavus phoenix'', the giant land snail, is a species 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 gastropod mollusks that have shells (those without shells are known as ...

s, terrestrial

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 includ ...

gastropod The gastropods (), commonly known as snails and slugs, belong to a large taxonomic class of invertebrates within the phylum Mollusca called Gastropoda (). This class comprises snails and slugs from saltwater, from freshwater, and from land. T ...

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 Acavidae.

Taxonomy

There are two subspecies recognized: *''Acavus phoenix phoenix'' *''Acavus phoenix castaneus''

Description

''Acavus phoenix'' is the most common ''Acavus'' species on the island. Shell about 60mm in diameter and is rose colored and body black colored.

Distribution and habitat

This species is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

to Sri Lanka. It is confined to wet zone of the country.

References

External links

Population Size, Plant Occupancy and Threats to Acavus
Acavidae Gastropods described in 1854 {{Acavidae-stub