''Albinaria'' is a
genus
Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...
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 ...
s,
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 ...
s in the family
Clausiliidae
Clausiliidae, also known by the common name door snails, is a Taxonomy (biology), taxonomic family (biology), family of small, very elongate, mostly Gastropod shell#Chirality in gastropods, left-handed, air-breathing land snails, sinistral terre ...
, called the door snails.
Ecology and Life Cycle
These species of snails live on limestone rocks, where they feed on algae and lichen. They are known to be active during the rainy seasons, that is, in Mediterranean lowlands, from November to April. Eggs are laid shortly after the beginning of the wet season. It takes two to three wet seasons for development from a juvenile to a fully grown shell . During the intermittent dry seasons, both young and adult snails, aestivate ("the warm weather equivalent of hibernation") on the rocks or in crevices inside the rocks. For aestivation, aggregates are often formed, sometimes reaching sizes of many hundreds of individuals. During the last dry season prior to sexual maturation, the subadult snail (the shell of which is already fully developed, albeit thinner than that of an adult) increases the size of its genital organs. Copulation then takes place during the first weeks of autumn rains. Population densities can sometimes be very high, in spite of heavy predation by beetle larvae of the genus ''Drilus''. These insects attack the snails during their aestivation, perforating the shell and eating the snail inside.
Distribution
Distribution of the genus ''Albinaria'' includes:
* southern Albania
* Greece
* Cyprus
* western and southern Turkey
* Lebanon
Species
Species in this genus include 111 species:
''Species in genus Albinaria ''
AnimalBase, accessed 21 September 2009.
* '' Albinaria adrianae'' Gittenberger, 1979
* '' Albinaria adriani'' (Gittenberger, 1987)
* '' Albinaria alajana'' (Boettger, 1896)
* '' Albinaria amalthea'' (Westerlund, 1878)
* '' Albinaria anatolica'' (Roth, 1839)
* '' Albinaria arcadica'' (Boettger, 1878)
* '' Albinaria argynnis'' (Westerlund, 1898)
* ''Albinaria ariadne
''Albinaria ariadne'' is a species of air-breathing land snail, a terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusk in the family Clausiliidae, the door snails. The species is endemic to Crete.
It has been stated that further research is necessary whether ...
'' Schilthuizen & Gittenberger, 1991
* '' Albinaria arthuriana'' (Boettger, 1878)
* '' Albinaria avia'' (Charpentier, 1852)
* '' Albinaria basalifera'' Neubert, 1992
* '' Albinaria bigibbosula'' (Westerlund, 1878)
* '' Albinaria brevicollis'' (Pfeiffer, 1850)
* '' Albinaria broemmei'' (Boettger, 1892)
* '' Albinaria butoti'' (Nordsieck, 1984)
* '' Albinaria byzantina'' (Charpentier, 1852)
* '' Albinaria caerulea'' (Deshayes, 1835)
* '' Albinaria campylauchen'' (Boettger, 1883)
* '' Albinaria candida'' (Pfeiffer, 1850)
* '' Albinaria cerigottana'' (Boettger, 1894)
* '' Albinaria christae'' Wiese, 1989
* '' Albinaria compressa'' (Pfeiffer, 1850)
* '' Albinaria confusa'' (Boettger, 1878)
* '' Albinaria contaminata'' (Rossmässler, 1835)
* '' Albinaria corrugata'' (Bruguière, 1792)
* '' Albinaria cretensis'' (Rossmässler, 1836)
* '' Albinaria cristatella'' (Küster, 1861)
* '' Albinaria cytherae'' (Boettger, 1894)
* '' Albinaria discolor'' (Pfeiffer, 1846)
* '' Albinaria eburnea'' (Pfeiffer, 1854)
* '' Albinaria edmundi'' (Gittenberger, 1987)
* '' Albinaria evelynae'' Gittenberger, 1998
* '' Albinaria forbesiana'' (Pfeiffer, 1846)
* '' Albinaria freytagi'' (Boettger, 1889)
* '' Albinaria fuchskaeufeli'' Nordsieck, 1977
* '' Albinaria gerolimena'' Nordsieck, 1974
* '' Albinaria grayana'' (Pfeiffer, 1846)
* '' Albinaria greeni'' Tomlin, 1935
* '' Albinaria grisea'' (Deshayes, 1835)
* '' Albinaria haessleini'' Fauer, 1978
* '' Albinaria hians'' (Boettger, 1878)
* '' Albinaria hippolyti'' (Boettger, 1878)
* '' Albinaria hohorsti'' Nordsieck, 1984
* '' Albinaria idaea'' (Pfeiffer, 1850)
* '' Albinaria idyllica'' (Gittenberger, 1987)
* '' Albinaria ietswaarti'' Gittenberger & Menkhorst, 1992
* '' Albinaria inauris'' (Boettger, 1896)
* '' Albinaria ithomensis'' Nordsieck, 1984
* '' Albinaria jaeckeli'' Wiese, 1989
* '' Albinaria janicollis'' Schultes & Wiese, 1991
* '' Albinaria janisadana'' Loosjes, 1955
* '' Albinaria jonica'' (Pfeiffer, 1866)
* '' Albinaria kemerensis'' Nordsieck, 1993
* '' Albinaria klemmi'' Paget, 1971
* '' Albinaria krueperi'' (Pfeiffer, 1866)
* '' Albinaria latelamellaris'' Neubert, Örstan & Welter-Schultes, 2000
* '' Albinaria lerosiensis'' (Pfeiffer, 1841)
* '' Albinaria li'' Welter-Schultes, 1999
* '' Albinaria linnei'' Gittenberger, 2008
* '' Albinaria litoraria'' Neubert, 1998
* '' Albinaria lycica'' Nordsieck, 1993
* '' Albinaria maculosa'' (Deshayes, 1835)
* '' Albinaria maltzani'' (Böttger, 1883)
* '' Albinaria manselli'' (Boettger, 1883)
* '' Albinaria mavromoustakisi'' Brandt, 1961
* '' Albinaria menelaus'' (Martens, 1873)
* '' Albinaria mixta'' Nordsieck, 1984
* '' Albinaria monocristata'' Neubert, 1992
* '' Albinaria moreletiana'' (Boettger, 1878)
* '' Albinaria munda'' (Rossmässler, 1836)
* '' Albinaria myrensis'' Nordsieck, 1993
* '' Albinaria nadimi'' Tohme & Tohme, 1988
* '' Albinaria nivea'' (Pfeiffer, 1854)
* '' Albinaria olivieri'' (Roth, 1839)
* '' Albinaria papillifera'' Nordsieck, 1993
* '' Albinaria pellucida'' Nordsieck, 1993
* '' Albinaria pelocarinata'' Gittenberger, 1994
* '' Albinaria percristata'' Nordsieck, 1993
* '' Albinaria petrosa'' (Pfeiffer, 1849)
* '' Albinaria praeclara'' (Pfeiffer, 1853)
* '' Albinaria profuga'' (Charpentier, 1852)
* '' Albinaria proteus'' (Boettger, 1889)
* '' Albinaria puella'' (Pfeiffer, 1850)
* '' Albinaria rebeli'' Wagner, 1924
* '' Albinaria rechingeri'' Paget, 1971
* '' Albinaria retusa'' (Olivier, 1801)
* '' Albinaria rollei'' (Boettger, 1896)
* '' Albinaria saxatilis'' (Pfeiffer, 1846)
* '' Albinaria schuetti'' Nordsieck, 1984
* '' Albinaria scopulosa'' (Charpentier, 1852)
* '' Albinaria senilis'' (Rossmässler, 1836)
* '' Albinaria solicola'' Neubert, 1998
* '' Albinaria sphakiota'' (Maltzan, 1887)
* '' Albinaria spratti'' (Pfeiffer, 1846)
* '' Albinaria staudingeri'' (Boettger, 1890)
* '' Albinaria sturanyi'' Wagner, 1924
* '' Albinaria subaii'' (Nordsieck, 1984)
* '' Albinaria sublamellosa'' (Boettger, 1883)
* '' Albinaria supercarinata'' Gittenberger & Menkhorst, 1992
* '' Albinaria tenuicostata'' (Pfeiffer, 1864)
* '' Albinaria terebra'' (Pfeiffer, 1853)
* '' Albinaria teres'' (Olivier, 1801)
* '' Albinaria thiesseae'' (Boettger, 1880)
* '' Albinaria torticollis'' (Olivier, 1801)
* '' Albinaria turrita'' (Pfeiffer, 1850)
* '' Albinaria violacea'' Schilthuizen & Gittenberger, 1990
* '' Albinaria virgo'' (Mousson, 1854)
* '' Albinaria voithii'' (Rossmässler, 1836)
* '' Albinaria wettsteini'' Fuchs & Käufel, 1936
* '' Albinaria wiesei'' Gittenberger, 1988
* '' Albinaria xanthostoma'' (Böttger, 1883)
* '' Albinaria zilchi'' Fauer, 1993
References
Further reading
* .
* Kemperman Th. C. M. (1992). "Genitalia of ''Albinaria'' of the Ionian islands Kephallinia and Ithaka". In: Kemperman Th. C. M. ''Systematics and evolutionary history of the ''Albinaria'' species from the Ionian islands of Kephallinia and Ithaka (Gastropoda Pulmonata: Clausiliidae)'': 41–80. Leiden, thesis Leiden University.
* Schilthuizen M. & Gittenberger E. (1996). "Allozyme variation in some Cretan ''Albinaria'' (Gastropoda): paraphyletic species as natural phenomena". In: Taylor J. D. (ed.) ''Origin and evolutionary radiation of the Mollusca'': 301–311. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
*
* .
External links
* http://wwwuser.gwdg.de/~fwelter/research.htm
* http://www.animalbase.uni-goettingen.de/zooweb/servlet/AnimalBase/home/genus?id=1
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