''Spelaeoconcha paganettii'' 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 very small 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 ...

s in the superfamily

Pupilloidea Pupilloidea is a superfamily of small and very small air-breathing land snails, terrestrial gastropods in the infraorder '' Pupilloidei''. They are diverse in morphology, habitat, and ecological roles. Description They are characterized by the ...

. The genus is

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unisp ...

, as also is the family.

Taxonomy

The family Spelaeoconchidae is classified within the informal group

Orthurethra Orthurethra is a clade of air-breathing land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusks in the clade Stylommatophora. In the taxonomy of the Gastropoda by Bouchet & Rocroi, 2005, Orthurethra is treated as an informal group and subclade of ...

, itself belonging to the

clade In biology, a clade (), also known as a Monophyly, monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that is composed of a common ancestor and all of its descendants. Clades are the fundamental unit of cladistics, a modern approach t ...

Stylommatophora Stylommatophora is an orderPhilippe Bouchet, Jean-Pierre Rocroi, Bernhard Hausdorf, Andrzej Kaim, Yasunori Kano, Alexander Nützel, Pavel Parkhaev, Michael Schrödl and Ellen E. Strong. 2017. Revised Classification, Nomenclator and Typification of ...

within the clade

Eupulmonata Eupulmonata is a taxonomic clade of air-breathing gastropod molluscs. The great majority of this group are land snails and slugs, but some are intertidal or inhabit coastal saltmarshes and mangroves. Possible synapomorphy of the group are gl ...

(according to the taxonomy of the Gastropoda by Bouchet & Rocroi, 2005). The family Spelaeoconchidae has no subfamilies (according to the taxonomy of the Gastropoda by Bouchet & Rocroi, 2005). ''Spelaeoconcha paganettii'' is the only species in the genus ''Spelaeoconcha'' and ''Spelaeoconcha'' is the only genus in the family Spelaeoconchidae. ''Spelaeoconcha'' is the

type genus In biological taxonomy, the type genus (''genus typica'') is the genus which defines a biological family and the root of the family name. Zoological nomenclature According to the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, "The name-bearin ...

of the family Spelaeoconchidae.

Distribution

The distribution of ''Spelaeoconcha paganettii'' includes Croatia, Bosnia and Hercegovina.

Description

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 whitish or pale yellowish, almost smooth and very shiny. The shell has 7 not very convex whorls. The last whorl is ascending shortly before the

aperture In optics, the aperture of an optical system (including a system consisting of a single lens) is the hole or opening that primarily limits light propagated through the system. More specifically, the entrance pupil as the front side image o ...

. The aperture is without teeth. Apertural margin is thickened except on upper side, and with a wavy contour seen from the side. Umbilicus is open but very narrow, only partly covered by columellar margin of the aperture. The width of the shell is 2.5–2.6 mm. The height of the shell is 5.4–6.1 mm.

Ecology

This small snail was found under stone rubble, on blackish-brown soil in a cave.

References

This article incorporates public domain text from the reference "Species summary for ''Spelaeoconcha paganettii''"

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 12 August 2008, accessed 5 April 2011. {{Taxonbar, from2=Q291744, from1=Q18585334, from3=Q27982664 Gastropods described in 1901 Monotypic gastropod genera