''Sphincterochila cariosula'' 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 ...

, 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 ...

mollusc Mollusca is a phylum of protostome, protostomic invertebrate animals, whose members are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 76,000 extant taxon, extant species of molluscs are recognized, making it the second-largest animal phylum ...

in the family

Sphincterochilidae Sphincterochilidae is a taxonomic family of medium-sized air-breathing land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusks in the superfamily Helicoidea (according to the taxonomy of the Gastropoda by Bouchet & Rocroi, 2005). In the fossil r ...

. MolluscaBase eds. (2022). MolluscaBase. Sphincterochila cariosula (Michaud, 1833). Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at: https://marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=1050620 on 2022-06-19

Subspecies

* ''Sphincterochila cariosula cariosula'' (Michaud, 1833) * ''Sphincterochila cariosula hispanica'' (

Westerlund Westerlund may refer to: * Westerlund 1, a star cluster * Westerlund 2, a star cluster * 2902 Westerlund, a Main-belt Asteroid People with the surname * Anna Westerlund (born 1989), Finnish footballer * Bengt Westerlund (1921–2008), Swedish pro ...

, 1891) - synonym ''Helix hispanica''. The subspecies is distributed in Spain.

Distribution

The indigenous distribution of the species is

Algeria Algeria, officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered to Algeria–Tunisia border, the northeast by Tunisia; to Algeria–Libya border, the east by Libya; to Alger ...

. The species was introduced to

Vélez-Málaga Vélez-Málaga () is a municipality and the capital of the Axarquía comarca in the province of Málaga, in the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia. It is the most important city in the comarca. Locally it is referred to as Vélez. Vélez- ...

in southern

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

and to western

Mallorca Mallorca, or Majorca, is the largest of the Balearic Islands, which are part of Spain, and the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, seventh largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. The capital of the island, Palma, Majorca, Palma, i ...

in historical times.''Species summary for Sphincterochila cariosula''
AnimalBase, last modified 26-09-2008 by F. Welter Schultes, accessed 12 April 2009.

Shell 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 subimperforate, carinate, globosely convex above, carious, somewhat flattened below, soiled white, with a tubercularly eroded filiform sutural carina. The shell has 5 somewhat flattened

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 upper margin of 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 ...

is subdeflected. The width of the shell is 16–19 mm and the height is 11–15 mm.

Habitat

''Sphincterochila cariosula'' occurs in

scrubland Shrubland, scrubland, scrub, brush, or bush is a plant community characterized by vegetation dominance (ecology), dominated by shrubs, often also including grasses, herbaceous plant, herbs, and geophytes. Shrubland may either occur naturally o ...

s and in

semidesert A semi-arid climate, semi-desert climate, or steppe climate is a dry climate sub-type. It is located on regions that receive precipitation below potential evapotranspiration, but not as low as a desert climate. There are different kinds of sem ...

References

This article incorporates public domain text from reference.

George Washington Tryon George Washington Tryon Jr. (20 May 1838 – 5 February 1888) was an American malacologist who worked at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. Biography George Washington Tryon was the son of Edward K. Tryon and Adeline Savidt. ...

, Jr. 1887. Manual of Conchology. Second series: Pulmonata
Volume 3
Helicidae - Volume I
page 13
��14. * Bank, R. A.; Neubert, E. (2017). Checklist of the land and freshwater Gastropoda of Europe. Last update: July 16, 2017.

External links

Photo of ''Sphincterochila cariosula hispanica''
{{Taxonbar, from=Q7576766 Sphincterochilidae Gastropods described in 1833