''Archachatina bicarinata'', the Obô giant snail, or black snail, is a
species
In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...
of air-breathing
tropical
The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the Equator. They are defined in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the Northern Hemisphere at N and the Tropic of Capricorn in
the Southern Hemisphere at S. The tropics are also referred to ...
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 gastropod mollusks that have shells (those without shells are known as ...
, a
terrestrial
Terrestrial refers to things related to land or the planet Earth.
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 or near the ground, as opposed to ...
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 includ ...
gastropod
The gastropods (), commonly known as snails and slugs, belong to a large taxonomic class of invertebrates within the phylum Mollusca called Gastropoda ().
This class comprises snails and slugs from saltwater, from freshwater, and from land. T ...
mollusk
Mollusca is the second-largest phylum of invertebrate animals after the Arthropoda, the members of which are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 85,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized. The number of fossil species is e ...
in the family
Achatinidae
Achatinidae (New Latin, from Greek "''agate''") is a family of medium to large sized tropical land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusks from Africa.
Well known species include ''Achatina achatina'' the Giant African Snail, and ''Lis ...
.
Description
The shell of ''A. bicarinata'' can reach a length of .
[ This giant shell is always sinistral or reverse-coiled (hence the synonym ''A. sinistrorsa'').
]
Distribution
This species is endemic
Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...
to São Tomé and Príncipe
São Tomé and Príncipe (; pt, São Tomé e Príncipe (); English: " Saint Thomas and Prince"), officially the Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe ( pt, República Democrática de São Tomé e Príncipe), is a Portuguese-speaking i ...
, off the west coast of Africa in the Gulf of Guinea
The Gulf of Guinea is the northeasternmost part of the tropical Atlantic Ocean from Cape Lopez in Gabon, north and west to Cape Palmas in Liberia. The intersection of the Equator and Prime Meridian (zero degrees latitude and longitude) is in the ...
.
Habitat
The Obô giant snail lives in the primary rainforest on the mountains. It suffers from habitat loss, the mass collection of the shells and harvesting the snails for food. The species got largely displaced by the smaller West African giant land snail (Archachatina marginata
The giant West African snail or banana rasp snail (''Archachatina marginata'') is a species of air-breathing tropical land snail, a terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusk in the family Achatinidae. They can grow up to long, and live up to ...
), which was introduced to the island in the 1980 and also brought diseases. ''A. bicarinata'' population has declined by more than 75% in the first 20 years of the 21st century. Formerly occurring throughout much of Principe, it is now only found in an area of some 46 km2 in the protected forests in the south of the island.
References
External links
Conchology.beArchive
Achatinidae
Endemic fauna of São Tomé and Príncipe
Invertebrates of São Tomé and Príncipe
Gastropods described in 1792
Taxonomy articles created by Polbot
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