''Zonitoides nitidus'' (sometimes ''Zonitoides nitida''), also known as the shiny glass snail or black gloss, 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, 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

Gastrodontidae Gastrodontidae is a family of air-breathing land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusks in the superfamily Gastrodontoidea (according to the taxonomy of the Gastropoda by Bouchet & Rocroi, 2005).MolluscaBase eds. (2020). MolluscaBas ...

. It 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 '' Zonitoides''.

Distribution

Zonitoides nitidus Presence in European countries

''Zonitoides nitidus'' has a

Holarctic The Holarctic realm is a biogeographic realm that comprises the majority of habitats found throughout the continents in the Northern Hemisphere. It corresponds to the floristic Boreal Kingdom. It includes both the Nearctic zoogeographical reg ...

distribution. It is found in most of

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

, except the southernmost regions. *

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 ...

– least concern (LC) *

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 ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

– Tver, Moscow, Novgorod, and Ulyanovsk *

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

Balashov I. & Gural-Sverlova N. 2012. An annotated checklist of the terrestrial molluscs of Ukraine. ''Journal of Conchology''. 41 (1): 91–109. *

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 ...

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...

– north British highland zones and not in north Scotland. In some regions in Britain the species has declined due to

drainage Drainage is the natural or artificial removal of a surface's water and sub-surface water from an area with excess water. The internal drainage of most agricultural soils can prevent severe waterlogging (anaerobic conditions that harm root gro ...

. *

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

Hebrides The Hebrides ( ; , ; ) are the largest archipelago in the United Kingdom, off the west coast of the Scotland, Scottish mainland. The islands fall into two main groups, based on their proximity to the mainland: the Inner Hebrides, Inner and Ou ...

Orkney Orkney (), also known as the Orkney Islands, is an archipelago off the north coast of mainland Scotland. The plural name the Orkneys is also sometimes used, but locals now consider it outdated. Part of the Northern Isles along with Shetland, ...

Shetland Shetland (until 1975 spelled Zetland), also called the Shetland Islands, is an archipelago in Scotland lying between Orkney, the Faroe Islands, and Norway, marking the northernmost region of the United Kingdom. The islands lie about to the ...

* rare in northern

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

The non-indigenous distribution of this species includes: * introduced to

Menorca Menorca or Minorca (from , later ''Minorica'') is one of the Balearic Islands located in the Mediterranean Sea belonging to Spain. Its name derives from its size, contrasting it with nearby Mallorca. Its capital is Maó, situated on the isl ...

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 ...

of ''Z. nitidus'' is reddish brown. The umbilicus is large: almost 25% of shell diameter. The shell has radial growth lines. It is wider than it is tall. It is 6–7 mm (0.24–0.28 in) wide and 3.5–4.0 mm (0.14–0.16 in) tall. The body of the adult animal is black with an orange dash: the ( mantle gland is visible under the shell's

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 ...

). Juveniles are whitish grey with light brown translucent shells.

Ecology

''Zonitoides nitidus'' occurs in wet meadows and river woods, usually near water bodies, swamps and swampy forests, in the zone of emergent vegetation. Man-made habitats such as pools in old quarries are sometimes colonized after a few years. In Switzerland it is found up to 2100m (6900 ft) of altitude. ''Zonitoides nitidus'' is largely

herbivorous A herbivore is an animal anatomically and physiologically evolved to feed on plants, especially upon vascular tissues such as foliage, fruits or seeds, as the main component of its diet. These more broadly also encompass animals that eat n ...

, but is malacophagous in summer. ''Z. nitidus'' feed on disintegrating leaves, mushrooms, roots and fruit, but they do not eat dry leaves. When consuming soft food such as mushrooms or soft fruits, ''Z. nitidus'' penetrates perpendicularly inside; the entire animal including its shell can penetrate inside the fruit. In summer, ''Z. nitidus'' prey upon snails and bivalves. In Germany up to three clutches of 2–9 eggs per individual are laid in all seasons, with some days or weeks spacing between egg-laying. Egg diameter is 1.0–1.6 mm (0.04–0.06 in). Eggs are laid loose into the soil. Juveniles have 1.5 whorls (diameter 1–1.2 mm, 0.04–0.05 in) after hatching. They start feeding on disintegrating plant remains in the soil. After 3 months the shell diameter reaches up to 3 mm (0.12 in) under favourable conditions, after 10 months 6 mm (0.24 in), and full size after slightly more than one year. Maximum age is 18 months under laboratory conditions. Parasites of ''Zonitoides nitidus'' include: * '' Elaphostrongylus'' spp.Olsson I.-M., Stéen M. & Mann H. (1993). "Gastropod hosts of ''Elaphostrongylus'' spp. (Protostrongylidae, Nematoda)". '' Rangifer'' 13(1): 53–55
PDF
* '' Parelaphostrongylus tenuis''

Michigan Department of Natural Resources and Environment The Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is the agency of the state of Michigan founded in 1921, charged with maintaining natural resources such as state parks, state forests, and recreation areas. It is governed by a director appoint ...

"Brainworm"
accessed 14 December 2010.

References

This article incorporates public domain text from the reference."Species summary for ''Zonitoides nitidus''"

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 29 August 2010, accessed 3 September 2010. * Minato, H. (1988). A systematic and bibliographic list of the Japanese land snails. H. Minato, Shirahama, 294 pp., 7 pls. * Riedel, A. (1995). Zonitidae sensu lato (Gastropoda, Stylommatophora) der Türkei. Übersicht der Arten. Fragmenta Faunistica, 38 (1): 1–86. Warszawa * Sysoev, A. V. & Schileyko, A. A. (2009). Land snails and slugs of Russia and adjacent countries. Sofia/Moskva (Pensoft). 312 pp., 142 plates. * Bank, R. A.; Neubert, E. (2017). Checklist of the land and freshwater Gastropoda of Europe. Last update: July 16, 2017

External links

Reinhardt, O. (1877). Über japanische Hyalinen, unter Zugrundelegung der Sammlungen des Herrn Hilgendorf. Sitzungsberichte der Gesellschaft naturforschender Freunde zu Berlin. 1877: 89–97

Pilsbry, H. A. (1902). New land mollusks from the Japanese Empire. The Nautilus. 16(4): 45–47; 16(5): 53–57

Clessin, S. (1878). Nordschwedische Mollusken. Malakozoologische Blätter. 25: 67–79.
*
Didier, B. & Rondelaud, D. (1989). Première données sur le régime alimentaire de ''Zonitoides nitidus'' Müller (Mollusque Gasteropod Pulmone). Bulletin de la Société d'Historie Naturelle de Toulouse. 125: 111–118
*
image of ''Zonitoides nitidus''
{{Taxonbar, from=Q1532576 Gastrodontidae Gastropods of Europe Gastropods described in 1774 Taxa named by Otto Friedrich Müller