''Afristreptaxis elongatus'' 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

Streptaxidae Streptaxidae is a family of carnivorous air-breathing land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusks in the clade Stylommatophora. Streptaxidae are monophyletic while all subfamilies and several genera are polyphyletic. Six Streptaxi ...

Description

The height of the shell attains 24 mm, its diameter 15 mm. (Original description) The shell is rimate, oval, and somewhat thin with a whitish, polished surface. The nucleus and the front of the

body whorl The body whorl is part of the morphology (biology), morphology of the gastropod shell, shell in those gastropod mollusks that possess a coiled shell. The term is also sometimes used in a similar way to describe the shell of a cephalopod mollusk ...

are almost smooth, while the remainder of the exterior features conspicuous, close-set, oblique striae. There are 6.5 convex

whorl 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 diagra ...

s. 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 semi-ovate and erect, with a slightly expanded, white peristome. The parietal wall has a small tooth or callosity.

Distribution

This species is occurs in

Zimbabwe file:Zimbabwe, relief map.jpg, upright=1.22, Zimbabwe, relief map Zimbabwe, officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Bots ...

Malawi Malawi, officially the Republic of Malawi, is a landlocked country in Southeastern Africa. It is bordered by Zambia to the west, Tanzania to the north and northeast, and Mozambique to the east, south, and southwest. Malawi spans over and ...

and

Mozambique Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique, is a country located in Southeast Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west, and Eswatini and South Afr ...

References

* Bruggen, A. C. van. (1963). On a sinistral specimen of Afristreptaxis elongatus (Mollusca, Gastropoda, Pulmonata) from South Africa. Revue de Zoologie et de Botanique Africaine. 67(1–2): 17–19. * Brown, K. (2023). A guide to the hunter shells. Vol. 2. The Streptaxoidea. The Enneinae, Orthogibbinae, Marconiinae, Odontartemoninae, Streptaxinae and the Diapheridae. ConchBooks, Germany.

External links

Fulton, H. (1899). Descriptions of supposed new species of Streptaxis and Amphidromus. Proceedings of the Malacological Society of London. 3: 302–303

Gbif.org: image
{{Taxonbar, from=Q106235082 elongatus Gastropods described in 1899