''Careoradula perelegans'' 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 ...

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 ...

. ''Careoradula perelegans'' is the only species in the genus ''Careoradula''. The generic name ''Careoradula'' consist of Latin word "careo", that means "lacking" and the word

radula The radula (; : radulae or radulas) is an anatomical structure used by mollusks for feeding, sometimes compared to a tongue. It is a minutely toothed, chitinous ribbon, which is typically used for scraping or cutting food before the food enters ...

Distribution

''Careoradula perelegans'' is endemic to the Seychelles.Sutcharit C., Naggs F., Wade C. M., Fontanilla I. & Panha S. (2010). "The new family Diapheridae, a new species of ''Diaphera'' Albers from Thailand, and the position of the Diapheridae within a molecular phylogeny of the Streptaxoidea (Pulmonata: Stylommatophora)". ''

Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society The ''Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society'' is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal covering zoology published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Linnean Society. The editor-in-chief is Maarten Christenhusz (Linnean Society) ...

'' 160: 1-16. .

Description

The shape of the

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 discoidal. The shell has 6-8

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 ...

. there are regular ribs on the shell. The umbilicus is open. The width of the shell is 4.4-6.1 mm. The height of the shell is 1.9-3.1 mm. The body color is pale yellow.

Digestive system The human digestive system consists of the gastrointestinal tract plus the accessory organs of digestion (the tongue, salivary glands, pancreas, liver, and gallbladder). Digestion involves the breakdown of food into smaller and smaller compone ...

: ''Careoradula perelegans'' is unique among other streptaxids, because it has no

, no

odontophore The odontophore is part of the feeding mechanism in molluscs. It is the cartilage which underlies and supports the radula, a ribbon of teeth. The radula is found in every class of molluscs except for the bivalves. The feeding apparatus can be exte ...

and no retractor muscles associated with these structures. It is the first known terrestrial mollusc and first

gastropod without radula.Gerlach J. & van Bruggen A. C. (1998). "A first record of a terrestrial mollusc without a radula". ''Journal of Molluscan Studies'' 64(2): 249-250. . Instead of this, the ''Careoradula perelegans'' has strong muscular ridges between mouth and oesophagus.

Ecology

''Careoradula perelegans'' feeds on

carrion Carrion (), also known as a carcass, is the decaying flesh of dead animals. Overview Carrion is an important food source for large carnivores and omnivores in most ecosystems. Examples of carrion-eaters (or scavengers) include crows, vultures ...

. It has been recorded to feed on dead snail '' Subulina octona''. It evert an extensive

rostrum Rostrum may refer to: * Any kind of a platform for a speaker: **dais **pulpit ** podium * Rostrum (anatomy), a beak, or anatomical structure resembling a beak, as in the mouthparts of many sucking insects * Rostrum (ship), a form of bow on naval ...

, that is available in all carnivorous gastropods on the anterior part of the oesophagus, and it uses only muscular peristaltics instead of rasping by radula.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q5039039 Streptaxidae