Albinaria

''Albinaria'' is a genus of air-breathing land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusks in the family Clausiliidae, the door snails.

Ecology and Life Cycle

The snails live on limestone rocks, where they feed on algae and lichen. They are active only during the wet season, that is, in Mediterranean lowlands, from November through April. Eggs are laid shortly after the beginning of the wet season. The development from a juvenile to a fully grown shell takes two to three wet seasons. During the intermittent dry seasons, the snails, young and adults alike, aestivate ("the warm weather equivalent of hibernation") on the rocks or in crevices inside the rocks. For aestivation, aggregates are often formed, sometimes reaching sizes of many hundreds of individuals. During the last dry season prior to sexual maturation, the subadult snail (the shell of which is already fully developed, albeit thinner than that of an adult) increases the size of its genital organs. Copulation then takes place during the first weeks of autumn rains. Population densities can sometimes be very high, in spite of heavy predation by beetle larvae of the genus ''Drilus''. These insects attack the snails during their aestivation, by perforating the shell and eating the snail inside.

Distribution

Distribution of the genus ''Albinaria'' includes:
* southern Albania
* Greece
* Cyprus
* western and southern Turkey
* Lebanon

Species

Species in this genus include 111 species:''Species in genus Albinaria ''
AnimalBase, accessed 21 September 2009.

* '' Albinaria adrianae'' Gittenberger, 1979
* '' Albinaria adriani'' (Gittenberger, 1987)
* '' Albinaria alajana'' (Boettger, 1896)
* '' Albinaria amalthea'' (Westerlund, 1878)
* '' Albinaria anatolica'' (Roth, 1839)
* '' Albinaria arcadica'' (Boettger, 1878)
* '' Albinaria argynnis'' (Westerlund, 1898)
* '' Albinaria ariadne'' Schilthuizen & Gittenberger, 1991
* '' Albinaria arthuriana'' (Boettger, 1878)
* '' Albinaria avia'' (Charpentier, 1852)
* '' Albinaria basalifera'' Neubert, 1992
* '' Albinaria bigibbosula'' (Westerlund, 1878)
* '' Albinaria brevicollis'' (Pfeiffer, 1850)
* '' Albinaria broemmei'' (Boettger, 1892)
* '' Albinaria butoti'' (Nordsieck, 1984)
* '' Albinaria caerulea'' (Deshayes, 1835)
* '' Albinaria campylauchen'' (Boettger, 1883)
* '' Albinaria candida'' (Pfeiffer, 1850)
* '' Albinaria cerigottana'' (Boettger, 1894)
* '' Albinaria christae'' Wiese, 1989
* '' Albinaria compressa'' (Pfeiffer, 1850)
* '' Albinaria confusa'' (Boettger, 1878)
* '' Albinaria contaminata'' (Rossmässler, 1835)
* '' Albinaria corrugata'' (Bruguière, 1792)
* '' Albinaria cretensis'' (Rossmässler, 1836)
* '' Albinaria cristatella'' (Küster, 1861)
* '' Albinaria cytherae'' (Boettger, 1894)
* '' Albinaria discolor'' (Pfeiffer, 1846)
* '' Albinaria eburnea'' (Pfeiffer, 1854)
* '' Albinaria edmundi'' (Gittenberger, 1987)
* '' Albinaria evelynae'' Gittenberger, 1998
* '' Albinaria forbesiana'' (Pfeiffer, 1846)
* '' Albinaria freytagi'' (Boettger, 1889)
* '' Albinaria fuchskaeufeli'' Nordsieck, 1977
* '' Albinaria gerolimena'' Nordsieck, 1974
* '' Albinaria grayana'' (Pfeiffer, 1846)
* '' Albinaria greeni'' Tomlin, 1935
* '' Albinaria grisea'' (Deshayes, 1835)
* '' Albinaria haessleini'' Fauer, 1978
* '' Albinaria hians'' (Boettger, 1878)
* '' Albinaria hippolyti'' (Boettger, 1878)
* '' Albinaria hohorsti'' Nordsieck, 1984
* '' Albinaria idaea'' (Pfeiffer, 1850)
* '' Albinaria idyllica'' (Gittenberger, 1987)
* '' Albinaria ietswaarti'' Gittenberger & Menkhorst, 1992
* '' Albinaria inauris'' (Boettger, 1896)
* '' Albinaria ithomensis'' Nordsieck, 1984
* '' Albinaria jaeckeli'' Wiese, 1989
* '' Albinaria janicollis'' Schultes & Wiese, 1991
* '' Albinaria janisadana'' Loosjes, 1955
* '' Albinaria jonica'' (Pfeiffer, 1866)
* '' Albinaria kemerensis'' Nordsieck, 1993
* '' Albinaria klemmi'' Paget, 1971
* '' Albinaria krueperi'' (Pfeiffer, 1866)
* '' Albinaria latelamellaris'' Neubert, Örstan & Welter-Schultes, 2000
* '' Albinaria lerosiensis'' (Pfeiffer, 1841)
* '' Albinaria li'' Welter-Schultes, 1999
* '' Albinaria linnei'' Gittenberger, 2008
* '' Albinaria litoraria'' Neubert, 1998
* '' Albinaria lycica'' Nordsieck, 1993
* '' Albinaria maculosa'' (Deshayes, 1835)
* '' Albinaria maltzani'' (Böttger, 1883)
* '' Albinaria manselli'' (Boettger, 1883)
* '' Albinaria mavromoustakisi'' Brandt, 1961
* '' Albinaria menelaus'' (Martens, 1873)
* '' Albinaria mixta'' Nordsieck, 1984
* '' Albinaria monocristata'' Neubert, 1992
* '' Albinaria moreletiana'' (Boettger, 1878)
* '' Albinaria munda'' (Rossmässler, 1836)
* '' Albinaria myrensis'' Nordsieck, 1993
* '' Albinaria nadimi'' Tohme & Tohme, 1988
* '' Albinaria nivea'' (Pfeiffer, 1854)
* '' Albinaria olivieri'' (Roth, 1839)
* '' Albinaria papillifera'' Nordsieck, 1993
* '' Albinaria pellucida'' Nordsieck, 1993
* '' Albinaria pelocarinata'' Gittenberger, 1994
* '' Albinaria percristata'' Nordsieck, 1993
* '' Albinaria petrosa'' (Pfeiffer, 1849)
* '' Albinaria praeclara'' (Pfeiffer, 1853)
* '' Albinaria profuga'' (Charpentier, 1852)
* '' Albinaria proteus'' (Boettger, 1889)
* '' Albinaria puella'' (Pfeiffer, 1850)
* '' Albinaria rebeli'' Wagner, 1924
* '' Albinaria rechingeri'' Paget, 1971
* '' Albinaria retusa'' (Olivier, 1801)
* '' Albinaria rollei'' (Boettger, 1896)
* '' Albinaria saxatilis'' (Pfeiffer, 1846)
* '' Albinaria schuetti'' Nordsieck, 1984
* '' Albinaria scopulosa'' (Charpentier, 1852)
* '' Albinaria senilis'' (Rossmässler, 1836)
* '' Albinaria solicola'' Neubert, 1998
* '' Albinaria sphakiota'' (Maltzan, 1887)
* '' Albinaria spratti'' (Pfeiffer, 1846)
* '' Albinaria staudingeri'' (Boettger, 1890)
* '' Albinaria sturanyi'' Wagner, 1924
* '' Albinaria subaii'' (Nordsieck, 1984)
* '' Albinaria sublamellosa'' (Boettger, 1883)
* '' Albinaria supercarinata'' Gittenberger & Menkhorst, 1992
* '' Albinaria tenuicostata'' (Pfeiffer, 1864)
* '' Albinaria terebra'' (Pfeiffer, 1853)
* '' Albinaria teres'' (Olivier, 1801)
* '' Albinaria thiesseae'' (Boettger, 1880)
* '' Albinaria torticollis'' (Olivier, 1801)
* '' Albinaria turrita'' (Pfeiffer, 1850)
* '' Albinaria violacea'' Schilthuizen & Gittenberger, 1990
* '' Albinaria virgo'' (Mousson, 1854)
* '' Albinaria voithii'' (Rossmässler, 1836)
* '' Albinaria wettsteini'' Fuchs & Käufel, 1936
* '' Albinaria wiesei'' Gittenberger, 1988
* '' Albinaria xanthostoma'' (Böttger, 1883)
* '' Albinaria zilchi'' Fauer, 1993

References

Further reading

* .
* Kemperman Th. C. M. (1992). "Genitalia of ''Albinaria'' of the Ionian islands Kephallinia and Ithaka". In: Kemperman Th. C. M. ''Systematics and evolutionary history of the ''Albinaria'' species from the Ionian islands of Kephallinia and Ithaka (Gastropoda Pulmonata: Clausiliidae)'': 41-80. Leiden, thesis Leiden University.
* Schilthuizen M. & Gittenberger E. (1996). "Allozyme variation in some Cretan ''Albinaria'' (Gastropoda): paraphyletic species as natural phenomena". In: Taylor J. D. (ed.) ''Origin and evolutionary radiation of the Mollusca'': 301-311. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
*
* .

External links

* http://wwwuser.gwdg.de/~fwelter/research.htm
* http://www.animalbase.uni-goettingen.de/zooweb/servlet/AnimalBase/home/genus?id=1

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