'' Macularia sylvatica'' is a medium-sized species of air-breathing dextral land snail, 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 gastropod mollusc in the family Helicidae. It was once seen as a close relative of the

grove snail The grove snail, brown-lipped snail or Lemon snail (''Cepaea nemoralis'') is a species of air-breathing land snail, a terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusc. MolluscaBase eds. (2020). MolluscaBase. Cepaea nemoralis (Linnaeus, 1758). Accessed ...

(''Cepaea nemoralis''), but does in fact not belong to the genus ''

Cepaea ''Cepaea'' is a genus of medium-sized air-breathing land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusks in the family Helicidae. The shells of species within this genus are often brightly colored and patterned with stripes. The two species ...

'' at all.

Geographic distribution and habitat

This westalpine species occurs in Germany, Italy, France, Liechtenstein and Switzerland.Francisco W. Welter-Schultes: ''European non-marine molluscs, a guide for species identification = Bestimmungsbuch für europäische Land- und Süsswassermollusken.'' A1-A3 S., 679 S., Q1-Q78 S., Göttingen, Planet Poster Ed., 2012 , (S. 368) The vertical distribution reaches from 265 - 2560m asl.Turner H, Kuiper JGJ, Thew N, Bernasconi R, Rütschi J, Wüthrich M & Gosteli M: ''Atlas der Mollusken der Schweiz und Liechtensteins.'' Centre suisse de catographie de la faune/Schweizerische Entomologische Gesellschaft/Eidg. Forschungsanstalt für Wald,Schnee und Landschaft, 1998 , It lives in similar habitats as ''Cepaea nemoralis'', such as woods, dunes and grassland, however ''M. sylvatica'' tolerates wetter and colder mountain areas than the grove snail can live in.

Description

''Macularia sylvatica'' is generally similar in appearance to ''C. nemoralis'', although the shell is not as colourful and not as variable as that of the grove snail. Also, the diameter of the shell of these snails is smaller than that of grove snails; the brown area is continuous; and the spire of the shell is blunt. The most significant trait is the formation of the colour bands on the shell, where at least the upper two appear to be "interrupted".

References

{{Commonscat Helicidae Gastropods described in 1801