Trochulus hispidus, previously known as Trichia hispida, common name, the "hairy snail", is a species of air-breathing land snail, a terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusk in the family Hygromiidae, the hairy snails and their allies.
Distribution
This species occurs in a number of
countries and islands including:
Western Europe:
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The British Isles: Great Britain and Ireland
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Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg
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Faroe Islands
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France
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Switzerland, Liechtenstein
Northern Europe:
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Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland
Central Europe:
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Austria, Germany, Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania
Southern Europe:
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Andorra, Spain, Italy, Bulgaria
Eastern Europe:
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Moldova
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Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania
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Ukraine
[Balashov I. & Gural-Sverlova N. 2012. An annotated checklist of the terrestrial molluscs of Ukraine. Journal of Conchology. 41 (1): 91-109.]
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Russian Federation (Kaliningrad)
Description
The 3-6 x 5-11 mm
gastropod shell has 5-6 moderately convex whorls which are rounded or very slightly keeled at the periphery. The aperture has a thin white lip inside. The umbilicus is open and usually wide at 1/8-1/4 of shell diameter. In colour the shell is brown to cream, sometimes with a light band at the periphery. The
periostracum is irregularly striated, and densely covered with short (0.2-0.3 mm), curved hairs. These hairs usually remain in the umbilicus if worn away from the rest of the shell. Lost hairs leave pronounced scars.
The animal is brownish grey with a darker anterior part.[ "Species summary for Trochulus hispidus". AnimalBase, last modified 4 January 2014, accessed 28 June 2014.]
Anatomy
This species of snail creates and uses
love darts before mating. The love dart of this species is thorn-shaped.
Shepeleva (2014) studied eyes of Trochulus hispidus.[ Shepeleva I. P. (2014). "Сравнительный анализ камерных глаз брюхоногих легочных моллюсков Trochulus hispidus (Linnaeus, 1758) из Южной Швеции и Калининградской области (Stylommatophora, Hygromiidae). A comparative analysis of the camera eyes of gastropod pulmonate mollusk Trochulus hispidus (Linnaeus, 1758) from the South Sweden and Kaliningrad Region (Stylommatophora, Hygromiidae)". Ruthenica 24(2): 123-127 PDF.]
Ecology
The size of the egg is 1.5 mm.
[Heller J.: Life History Strategies. in Barker G. M. (ed.): The biology of terrestrial molluscs. CABI Publishing, Oxon, UK, 2001, . 1-146, cited page: 428.]
A hairy snail was found in the plumage of a great tit ( Parus major) wintering in southwestern Poland in 2010. This passerine was the smallest bird species reported to carry a gastropod.[Rusiecki S. & Rusiecka A. 2013. Hairy snail Trochulus hispidus (Linnaeus, 1758) in flight - a note on avian dispersal of snails. Folia Malacologica 21(2):111-112.]
Further reading
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Dépraz A., Hausser J. & Pfenninger M. (2009). "A species delimitation approach in the Trochulus sericeus/ hispidus complex reveals two cryptic species within a sharp contact zone". BMC Evolutionary Biology 2009(9): 171.
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Kruckenhauser L., Duda M., Bartel D., Sattmann H., Harl J., Kirchner S. & Haring E. (2014). "Paraphyly and budding speciation in the hairy snail (Pulmonata, Hygromiidae)". Zoologica Scripta, 43(3): 273-288. .
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Proćków M. & Kuźnik-Kowalska E. (2016). "Major fitness components in life history of euryoecious land snail Trochulus hispidus (Linnaeus, 1758)(Gastropoda: Hygromiidae)". Folia Malacologica 24: 179-184. . PDF
External links
