''Partula lutea'' was 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

tropical The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the equator, where the sun may shine directly overhead. This contrasts with the temperate or polar regions of Earth, where the Sun can never be directly overhead. This is because of Earth's ax ...

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 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 ...

Partulidae Partulidae is a family (biology), family of air-breathing land snails, Terrestrial molluscs, terrestrial gastropod mollusks in the Taxonomic rank, superfamily Pupilloidea.MolluscaBase eds. (2021). MolluscaBase. Partulidae Pilsbry, 1900. Accessed ...

. This species was

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

Bora Bora Bora Bora (French language, French: ''Bora-Bora''; Tahitian language, Tahitian: ''Pora Pora'') is an island group in the Leeward Islands (Society Islands), Leeward Islands in the Pacific Ocean, South Pacific. The Leeward Islands comprise the we ...

French Polynesia French Polynesia ( ; ; ) is an overseas collectivity of France and its sole #Governance, overseas country. It comprises 121 geographically dispersed islands and atolls stretching over more than in the Pacific Ocean, South Pacific Ocean. The t ...

. It is now

extinct Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...

. This was a relatively uniform species with several color forms and was originally exceedingly common on

Mount Otemanu Mount Otemanu is a mountain located in the South Pacific, on the island of Bora Bora. With an elevation of 727 metres (2,385 ft) above sea level, it is the highest point of the island. Mount Otemanu is an extinct volcano. The mountain serves ...

, yet was originally believed to have become extinct in the early 1990s. Evidence in the condition of recently collected shells show that ''P. lutea'' survived 10 years further than it had once been thought. Some shells have been found in lava tubes or under rocky overhangs in forests of '' Hibiscus tiliaceaus''. The species had become extinct due to predation by flatworms, ''

Euglandina ''Euglandina'' is a genus of predatory medium- to large-sized, air-breathing, land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusks in the family Spiraxidae.PDF. These snails were previously placed in the family Oleacinidae (according to the t ...

'', and '' Lissachatina'' species. A similar (if not conspecific) population has been discovered on Maupiti, an island near to Bora Bora, also represented by shells that may have been introduced to the island in the 19th century.

References

lutea Extinct gastropods Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Gastropods described in 1831 Taxa named by René Lesson Extinct invertebrates since 1500 {{Partulidae-stub