''Acicula fusca'' is a species of

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 ...

in the family

Aciculidae The Aciculidae are a family (biology), family of small land snails that have operculum (gastropod), opercula (an operculum is a little door that closes the shell when the animal retracts into it). In other words, Aciculidae are Terrestrial mollus ...

. It is known by the common name point snail. It is native to Europe, where it occurs in

Britain Britain most often refers to: * Great Britain, a large island comprising the countries of England, Scotland and Wales * The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, a sovereign state in Europe comprising Great Britain and the north-eas ...

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

south to the Basses Pyrénées,

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

, and north-west

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. Commonest in the west. The distribution type is Oceanic Temperate.

Shell description

For terms see ''

gastropod shell The gastropod shell is part of the body of many gastropods, including snails, a kind of mollusc. The shell is an exoskeleton, which protects from predators, mechanical damage, and dehydration, but also serves for muscle attachment and calcium ...

''. The shell is about 2 to 3 millimeters wide, with 6 whorls and shallow sutures. The apex is blunt. The penultimate whorl is striated with 15 to 23 lines and the aperture climbs only slightly at the penultimate whorl. The apertural margin is not thickened inside, the callus does not cover the umbilicus, the angularis is very weak, the parietal callus is weak or absent, no cervical callus is present. There is a minute translucent operculum. The surface is smooth, glossy, reddish to yellowish-brown.

Habitat

This species lives in wet moss and leaf litter in

woodland A woodland () is, in the broad sense, land covered with woody plants (trees and shrubs), or in a narrow sense, synonymous with wood (or in the U.S., the '' plurale tantum'' woods), a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunli ...

s on

calcareous Calcareous () is an adjective meaning "mostly or partly composed of calcium carbonate", in other words, containing lime (mineral), lime or being chalky. The term is used in a wide variety of Science, scientific disciplines. In zoology ''Calcare ...

soils. Because it is minute, it is easily overlooked.

References

External links

''Acicula fusca''
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 ...

Malacologie-les escargots terrestres de France
Image
''Acicula fusca''
Species account and photograph at Mollusc Ireland.
Guido Poppe: Acicula
Acicula (gastropod) Gastropods of Europe Gastropods described in 1803 {{Aciculidae-stub