''Achatinella decipiens'' is a

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 ...

mollusk Mollusca is a phylum of protostomic invertebrate animals, whose members are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 76,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized, making it the second-largest animal phylum after Arthropoda. The ...

in the family

Achatinellidae Achatinellidae is a family of tropical air-breathing land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusks in the superfamily Pupilloidea. Taxonomy It was previously the only family in the superfamily Achatinelloidea (according to the tax ...

. This species is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only 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 foun ...

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...

. Cooke considered ''Achatinella decipiens'' to be a subspecies of ''

Achatinella byronii ''Achatinella byronii'' is a species of air-breathing land snail, a terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusk in the family Achatinellidae. This species is endemic to Oahu, in the Hawaiian Islands. ''Achatinella byronii'' is the type species of ...

''.

Shell description

The rough sinistral (eastern range) or smooth dextral (western range)

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 ...

is conically-elongate, solid, slightly rounded, and margined above. The shell has 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). In nature File:Photograph and axial plane floral diagram ...

. The

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 ...

is elongately-ovate and the lip is subreflected. 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 ...

is short, obliquely twisted and has an expanded callus. The suture is slightly impressed with numerous longitudinal, oblique striae. Shell color is white with yellow transverse bands, or yellow with white transverse lines and longitudinal chestnut colored stripes. The height of the shell is 20.5 mm. The width of the shell is 9.0 mm.

References

This article incorporates public domain text (a

public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no Exclusive exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly Waiver, waived, or may be inapplicable. Because no one holds ...

work of the United States Government A work of the United States government is defined by the United States copyright law of the United States, copyright law, as "a work prepared by an officer or employee of the United States Government as part of that person's official duties".: ...

) from reference. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. (1992) Recovery Plan for the O’ahu Tree Snails of the Genus ''Achatinella''. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Portland, Oregon, 64 pp. + 64 pp. of appendices + 5 figures
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/ref> {{Taxonbar, from=Q308957 decipiens Molluscs of Hawaii Endemic fauna of Hawaii Critically endangered fauna of the United States Gastropods described in 1854 Taxonomy articles created by Polbot ESA endangered species