''Lithoglyphus naticoides'' , the gravel snail, 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 small or minute

freshwater snail Freshwater snails are gastropod mollusks that live in fresh water. There are many different families. They are found throughout the world in various habitats, ranging from ephemeral pools to the largest lakes, and from small seeps and springs t ...

with an operculum, an aquatic

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 Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

Lithoglyphidae Lithoglyphidae is a family of small freshwater snails with gills and an operculum, aquatic gastropod mollusks. This family is in the superfamily Truncatelloidea and in the clade Littorinimorpha (according to the taxonomy of the Gastropoda by ...

. ''Lithoglyphus naticoides'' is the

type species In International_Code_of_Zoological_Nomenclature, zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the spe ...

of the genus ''Lithoglyphus''.

Distribution

The distribution of ''Lithoglyphus naticoides'' in the

Pliocene The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch (geology), epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.33 to 2.58Siberia Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states ...

. Its distribution subsequently shrank to the Ponto-

Azov Azov (, ), previously known as Azak ( Turki/ Kypchak: ), is a town in Rostov Oblast, Russia, situated on the Don River just from the Sea of Azov, which derives its name from the town. The population is History Early settlements in the vici ...

area during cooler eras. The distribution of this species is Pontic. The native distribution includes only Black Sea rivers and the

Danube The Danube ( ; see also #Names and etymology, other names) is the List of rivers of Europe#Longest rivers, second-longest river in Europe, after the Volga in Russia. It flows through Central and Southeastern Europe, from the Black Forest sou ...

up to

Regensburg Regensburg (historically known in English as Ratisbon) is a city in eastern Bavaria, at the confluence of the rivers Danube, Naab and Regen (river), Regen, Danube's northernmost point. It is the capital of the Upper Palatinate subregion of the ...

, from southeastern to central Europe. It has also artificially colonized other parts of Europe. After 1800 it was introduced to the

Elbe The Elbe ( ; ; or ''Elv''; Upper Sorbian, Upper and , ) is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Giant Mountains of the northern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia (western half of the Czech Republic), then Ge ...

and

Rhine The Rhine ( ) is one of the List of rivers of Europe, major rivers in Europe. The river begins in the Swiss canton of Graubünden in the southeastern Swiss Alps. It forms part of the Swiss-Liechtenstein border, then part of the Austria–Swit ...

regions. After 1960 it has become almost extinct due to water pollution in central Europe. This snail is found in the following countries: Western Europe: *

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

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 ...

Central Europe: *

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

- endangered in Moravia *

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 ...

- high endangered (''Stark gefährdet'') It is critically endangered in

Sachsen-Anhalt Saxony-Anhalt ( ; ) is a state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony, Thuringia and Lower Saxony. It covers an area of and has a population of 2.17 million inhabitants, making it the 8th-largest state in Germany by area an ...

and in

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg ( ; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a states of Germany, German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million i ...

. *

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

- endangered, non-indigenous *

Slovakia Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the west, and the Czech Republic to the northwest. Slovakia's m ...

Horsák M., Juřičková L., Beran L., Čejka T. & Dvořák L. (2010). "Komentovaný seznam měkkýšů zjištěných ve volné přírodě České a Slovenské republiky. nnotated list of mollusc species recorded outdoors in the Czech and Slovak Republics. ''

Malacologica Bohemoslovaca ''Malacologica Bohemoslovaca'' is a peer-reviewed open access scientific journal covering all aspects of malacology. It was published by the Slovak Academy of Sciences since 2005. It is published by the Department of Botany and Zoology, Faculty of ...

'', Suppl. 1: 1-37
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Eastern Europe: *

Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...

* Lithuania * Belarus * Ukraine * RussiaYakovlev V. A., Akhmetzyanova N. Sh. & Yakovleva A. V. (2010). "Distributional patterns and size-weight parameters of ''Lithoglyphus naticoides'' (Gastropoda: Hydrobiidae) in the upper reach of the Kuibyshev Reservoir". '' Russian Journal of Biological Invasions'' 1(4): 313-322. . It was found in the delta of

Volga The Volga (, ) is the longest river in Europe and the longest endorheic basin river in the world. Situated in Russia, it flows through Central Russia to Southern Russia and into the Caspian Sea. The Volga has a length of , and a catchment ...

river in 1971. It has spread upstream since 1971 inhabiting also reservoirs including:

Volgograd Reservoir The Volgograd Reservoir () is a reservoir on the Volga river in the Russian oblasts of Volgograd and Saratov. The reservoir's water level is maintained by the dam of the Volga Hydroelectric Station, built from 1958 to 1961. Named after the cit ...

, Saratov Reservoir,

Kuybyshev Reservoir Kuybyshev Reservoir or Kuybyshevskoye Reservoir () is a reservoir of the middle Volga and lower Kama in Chuvashia, Mari El Republic, Republic of Tatarstan, Samara Oblast and Ulyanovsk Oblast, Russia. It is sometimes called as Samara Reservoir an ...

and

Gorky Reservoir Gorky Reservoir (), known colloquially as Gorky Sea (), is an artificial lake in the central part of the Volga River in Russia, formed by a hydroelectric dam of Gorky Hydroelectric Station (now called Nizhny Novgorod Hydroelectric Station) bu ...

. *

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

Yildirim M. Z., Koca S. B. & Kebapçi U. (2006). "Supplement to the Prosobranchia (Mollusca: Gastropoda) Fauna of Fresh and Brackish Waters of Turkey". '' Turkish Journal of Zoology'' 30: 197-204
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Asia: * Bukhtarminskoe Reservoir on the

Irtysh River The Irtysh is a river in Russia, China, and Kazakhstan. It is the chief tributary of the Ob and is also the longest tributary in the world. The river's source lies in the Mongolian Altai in Dzungaria (the northern part of Xinjiang, China) cl ...

in Kazakhstan It has reached population densities of 700 snails per m² there. North America: *

Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes spanning the Canada–United States border. The five lakes are Lake Superior, Superior, Lake Michigan, Michigan, Lake Huron, H ...

Description

This species is called "naticoides" because in shape and general appearance 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 ...

and the operculum of this species is reminiscent of the shell and the operculum of the marine moon snails or

Naticidae Naticidae, common name moon snails or necklace shells, is a family (biology), family of medium to large-sized predatory sea snails, marine (ocean), marine gastropod molluscs in the clade Littorinimorpha. The shells of the species in this family a ...

(for example, the Northern moon snail). The shell is globular, light grey to greenish yellow or dark. The shell has 4.5-5

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 last whorl is predominating. Dimensions of the shell are 7–10 mm × 7–10 mm. Or the width of the shell is 6.5–8 mm. The height of the shell is 7–9 mm. The animal has a broad foot. Males are often smaller than females.

Ecology

It lives in rivers, lakes, channels and reservoirs. In rivers, it lives at sites with low water currents, on solid muddy soils and at stones. It requires high oxygen and calcium carbonate contents. The population diversity reached up to 3.300 snails per m² according to Krause (1949).Glöer P. (2002). ''Die Süßwassergastropoden Nord- und Mitteleuropas''. Die Tierwelt Deutschlands, ConchBooks, Hackenheim, 326 pp., . It can live in

salinity Salinity () is the saltiness or amount of salt (chemistry), salt dissolved in a body of water, called saline water (see also soil salinity). It is usually measured in g/L or g/kg (grams of salt per liter/kilogram of water; the latter is dimensio ...

up to 3 ‰. ''Lithoglyphus naticoides'' feeds on

diatome {{Infobox racehorse , horsename = Diatome , image = , caption = , sire = Sicambre , grandsire = Prince Bio , dam = Dictaway , damsire = Honeway , sex = Stallion , foaled = 13 June 1962 , country = Great Britain , colour = Dark Bay , ...

s and green alga. The life cycle of ''Lithoglyphus naticoides'' takes one year. Reproduction of ''Lithoglyphus naticoides'' takes place mainly in July. The morphology of the egg capsules has been described by Berezkina (2010). The life span is 4–5 years. Parasites of ''Lithoglyphus naticoides'' include: * It serves as the first

intermediate host In biology and medicine, a host is a larger organism that harbours a smaller organism; whether a parasitic, a mutualistic, or a commensalist ''guest'' (symbiont). The guest is typically provided with nourishment and shelter. Examples include ...

for '' Nicolla skrjabini'' (Iwanitzki, 1928)Tyutin A. V. & Slynko Yu. V. (2010). "The first finding of the Black Sea snail ''Lithoglyphus naticoides'' (Gastropoda) and its associated species-specific trematoda in the Upper Volga basin". '' Russian Journal of Biological Invasions'' 1(1): 45-49. . * It serves as the first intermediate host for '' Apophallus muehlingi'' (Jägerskiöld, 1898) * It serves as an intermediate host for '' Apophallus donicus'' (Skrjabin & Lindtrop, 1919).

Human use

Perforated shells of ''Lithoglyphus naticoides'' were found in a

Neolithic The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...

grave in

Lower Austria Lower Austria ( , , abbreviated LA or NÖ) is one of the nine states of Austria, located in the northeastern corner of the country. Major cities are Amstetten, Lower Austria, Amstetten, Krems an der Donau, Wiener Neustadt and Sankt Pölten, which ...

as a head decoration.Harzhauser M., Lenneis E., & Neugebauer-Maresch C. (2007). "Freshwater gastropods as Neolithic adornment: size selectiveness and perforation morphology as a result of grinding techniques". '' Annalen des Naturhistorischen Museums in Wien'' 109A 73-85
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References

This article incorporates public domain text from the reference"Species summary for ''Lithoglyphus naticoides''"

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 ...

, last modified 24 February 2009, accessed 22 May 2011.

External links

* Kołodziejczyk A. (2001). "Nowe stanowisko ''Lithoglyphus naticoides'' (C. Pfeiffer, 1828) (Gastropoda, Hydrobiidae) w Polsce". '' Przeg. zool.'' 45: 79–81. {{Authority control Lithoglyphidae Gastropods described in 1828