''Physa fontinalis'',
common name
In biology, a common name of a taxon or organism (also known as a vernacular name, English name, colloquial name, country name, popular name, or farmer's name) is a name that is based on the normal language of everyday life; and is often contrast ...
the common bladder snail, is a
species of air-breathing
freshwater snail
Freshwater snails are gastropod mollusks which 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 ...
, an
aquatic gastropod
The gastropods (), commonly known as snails and slugs, belong to a large taxonomic class of invertebrates within the phylum Mollusca called Gastropoda ().
This class comprises snails and slugs from saltwater, from freshwater, and from land. T ...
mollusk in the family
Physidae. The shells of species in the genus ''Physa'' are left-handed or
sinistral.
Description
The shell is 7 to 12 mm high and 4 to 7 mm wide. The spiral has four to five whorls ( the last of which forms more than three-quarters of the shell height) and the apex is rounded. The shell is very thin-walled, translucent, shiny and is a pale horn colour. The aperture is wide and oval, and the mouth edge is very thin and brittle. The body color is brown to black. The edges of the
mantle
A mantle is a piece of clothing, a type of cloak. Several other meanings are derived from that.
Mantle may refer to:
*Mantle (clothing), a cloak-like garment worn mainly by women as fashionable outerwear
**Mantle (vesture), an Eastern Orthodox ve ...
extend as finger-like lobes over the exterior of the shell. The tentacles are long, slender and cylindrical, with the eyes at the base. The foot is long and thin. Bladder snails are hermaphrodites.
Ecology
This species is an opportunist inhabiting streams, rivers, ponds, lakes, springs, canals and irrigation ditches. It occurs in both nutrient-poor and richly vegetated habitats. It may be found in (moderately) polluted water bodies.
Distribution
This species has a wide distribution in the western
Palaearctic but confusion with similar species makes the eastern limits of its distribution uncertain. The range is probably Eurasian Boreo-temperate. Some ‘species’ found in North America may be
conspecific in which case the range could be Circumpolar Boreo-temperate.
This species is found in the
Czech Republic,
[ 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'', Suppl. 1: 1-37]
PDF
Slovakia,
,
Poland, the
Netherlands,
Croatia and others.
Threats
''Physa fontinalis'' is a
Least Concern species.
IUCN Red list
/ref>
but is included on National and Regional Red Lists.
References
External links
''Physa fontinalis''
at Animalbase taxonomy,short description, distribution, biology,status (threats), images
Identification of Freshwater and Brackish-water Snails of Britain and Ireland
Conchological Society of Great Britain & Ireland
The Conchological Society of Great Britain and Ireland is a British-based society concerned with the study of molluscs and their shells. It was founded in 1876, and is one of the oldest such societies in the world. It is a registered UK charity (n ...
online manual
''Physa fontinalis''
at National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI)
Physidae
Gastropods described in 1758
Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus
{{Physidae-stub