Laevaricella perlucens
Laevaricella perlucens
NE[1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Mollusca
Class:
Gastropoda
(unranked):
clade Heterobranchia

clade Euthyneura
clade Panpulmonata
clade Eupulmonata
clade Stylommatophora

informal group Sigmurethra
Superfamily:
Testacelloidea
Family:
Oleacinidae
Subfamily:
Varicellinae
Genus:
Laevaricella
Species:
L. perlucens
Binomial name
Laevaricella perlucens
(Guppy, 1868)[2]
Synonyms

Glandina perlucens Guppy, 1868

Laevaricella perlucens is a species of tropical, air-breathing land snail, a terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusk in the family Oleacinidae.

Distribution

Laevaricella perlucens is endemic to Dominica.[3] The type locality is "on Morne Diablotin, the north end on the island", Dominica.[2]

Laevaricella perlucens is very restricted in range[3] and probably meet the IUCN-criteria of Critically Endangered species.[3]

Description

Laevaricella perlucens was originally discovered and described (under the name Glandina perlucens) by British-born naturalist Robert John Lechmere Guppy in 1868.[2]

Guppy's original text (the type description) reads in Latin language and in English language as follows:

Glandina perlucens, n. sp.

Testa subulate-turrita, laevis, diaphana, fusco-flavida, vix striatula, lineis distautibus ornata; apex obtusissimus; anfractus 7, parum convexi, lente accrescentes, ultimas applanatus, spirse longitudinem circiter sequans; sutura valde impressa; columella valde torta, truncata; peristoma simplex, margine externo aliquanto prominente.

Long, 16 millim., lat. maj. 4 millim.; apart, alt. 4, lat. 2.

A subulate-turreted, smooth, brilliantly polished, yellowish-red shell, marked by obscure striae and by distant variciform lines, of which there are from three to six on a whorl; with a very obtuse apex and seven slowly increasing, scarcely convex whorls, the last somewhat flattened and equal to about half the length of the shell; columella strongly curved, truncate; aperture oval, elongate; peristome simple, its external margin somewhat prominent.

A species allied to G. afrcuata., Pf., of Jamaica. Of three examples I obtained, one only was of full growth.

This species had never been collected since it was described by Guppy (1868)[2] until 2009 and his type material was subsequently lost.[3] The single specimen collected alive in 2009 allowed figure this species for the first time.[3]

Ecology

This species is restricted to higher localities.[3] It does not occur, however, on the upper slopes of the higher peaks, but it seems to be restricted to the hygrophytic vegetation zone (cloud forest).[3]

References

This article incorporates public domain text from the reference[2] and CC-BY-3.0 text from the reference.[3]

  1. ↑ IUCN 2010. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2010.4. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloaded on 5 December 2010.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Guppy R. L. M. (1868). On the terrestrial mollusks of Dominica and Grenada, with an account of some new species from Trinidad. Annals and Magazine of Natural History (4)1: 429-442. page 430.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Robinson D. G., Hovestadt A., Fields A. & Breure A. S. H. (July 2009). "The land Mollusca of Dominica (Lesser Antilles), with notes on some enigmatic or rare species". Zoologische Mededelingen 83 http://www.zoologischemededelingen.nl/83/nr03/a13 Archived 7 October 2011 at the Wayback Machine
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.