''Elona quimperiana'',

common name In biology, a common name of a taxon or organism (also known as a vernacular name, English name, colloquial name, country name, popular name, or farmer's name) is a name that is based on the normal language of everyday life; and is often contrast ...

the escargot de Quimper ("Quimper 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

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

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 Elonidae. ''Elona'' is a monotypic genus, i.e. it contains only one species, ''Elona quimperiana''. The specific name comes from the city of

Quimper Quimper (, ; br, Kemper ; la, Civitas Aquilonia or ) is a commune and prefecture of the Finistère department of Brittany in northwestern France. Administration Quimper is the prefecture (capital) of the Finistère department. Geography The ...

Brittany Brittany (; french: link=no, Bretagne ; br, Breizh, or ; Gallo language, Gallo: ''Bertaèyn'' ) is a peninsula, Historical region, historical country and cultural area in the west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known ...

, France. This snail is mentioned in annexes II and IV of the Habitats Directive.

Original description

''Elona quimperiana'' was originally described (under the name ''Helix quimperiana'') by

André Étienne d'Audebert de Férussac Baron André Étienne Justin Pascal Joseph François d'Audebert de Férussac (30 December 1786 – 21 January 1836) was a French naturalist best known for his studies of molluscs. (Two of his given names are sometimes spelt Just or Juste instead o ...

in 1821. Férussac's original text (the

type description A species description is a formal description of a newly discovered species, usually in the form of a scientific paper. Its purpose is to give a clear description of a new species of organism and explain how it differs from species that have be ...

) reads in the French language as follows: Which means in English: "Habitat: Margin of

Briec Briec (, formerly ''Briec-de-l'Odet''; br, Brieg) is a commune in the Finistère department in the region of Brittany in north-western France. Sights * Calvary at Saint-Vennec, (1556) *Chapelle de la Madeleine, 16th century *Chapelle de Sainte-C ...

(Briec-de-l'Odet) near

. It was found by

Messieurs ( ; ; pl. ; ; 1512, from Middle French , literally "my lord") is an honorific title that was used to refer to or address the eldest living brother of the king in the French royal court. It has now become the customary French title of respe ...

De Kermovan and Bonnemaison."

Shell description

The shell is umbilicate and planorboid in shape. The

spire A spire is a tall, slender, pointed structure on top of a roof of a building or tower, especially at the summit of church steeples. A spire may have a square, circular, or polygonal plan, with a roughly conical or pyramidal shape. Spires are ...

is slightly concave. The periphery is broadly rounded, corneous with a few varicoid white stripes. The shell has five or six

whorls A whorl ( or ) is an individual circle, oval, volution or equivalent in a whorled pattern, which consists of a spiral or multiple concentric objects (including circles, ovals and arcs). Whorls in nature File:Photograph and axial plane floral d ...

. The

aperture In optics, an aperture is a hole or an opening through which light travels. More specifically, the aperture and focal length of an optical system determine the cone angle of a bundle of rays that come to a focus in the image plane. An opt ...

is lunar and slightly oblique. The lip is white, expanded above, reflexed below, with the ends distant. The width of the shell is 20–30 mm. The height of the shell is 10–12 mm. Kerney M.P., Cameron R.A.D. & Jungbluth J.H. (1983). ''Die Landschnecken Nord- und Mitteleuropas.'' Hamburg/Berlin, 384 pp., page 242-243. File:Elona quimperiana shell.jpg, apical view File:Elona quimperiana shell 2.jpg, apertural view File:Elona quimperiana shell 3.jpg, umbilical view

Anatomy

The jaw has 11-16 narrow ribs. The anatomy of ''Elona quimperiana'' was described in detail by

Alfred Moquin-Tandon Christian Horace Benedict Alfred Moquin-Tandon (7 May 1804 – 15 April 1863) was a French naturalist and doctor. Moquin-Tandon was professor of zoology at Marseille from 1829 until 1833, when he was appointed professor of botany and director of ...

already in 1855-1856 and later by Gittenberger (1979).Gittenberger E. (1979). ''On Elona (Pulmonata, Eloniadae fam. nov.)'
Malacologia Volume 18, 1-2
Sixth European Malacological Congress, Amsterdam
139
145.

Reproductive system The reproductive system of an organism, also known as the genital system, is the biological system made up of all the anatomical organs involved in sexual reproduction. Many non-living substances such as fluids, hormones, and pheromones are als ...

: the genitalia have club-shaped mucous glands, in other words, the mucous glands are shortened into somewhat rounded triangular sacks. Mucous glands shaped like this are unusual in the

Helicoidea Helicoidea is a taxonomic superfamily of air-breathing land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusks in the clade Stylommatophora. Taxonomy 2005 taxonomy There are 19 families within the superfamily Helicoidea according to the ta ...

, but are typical of the Elonidae. The

dart sack Dart or DART may refer to: * Dart, the equipment in the game of darts Arts, entertainment and media * Dart (comics), an Image Comics superhero * Dart, a List of G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero characters (D–G), character from ''G.I. Joe'' * Da ...

is inserted in a sort of calyx at base. The love dart is curved at the end, with lens-like section.
Drawing of reproductive system by Gittenberger 1979
)

Distribution

This species is found in France and Spain. The Lusitanian snail ''Elona quimperiana'' has a remarkably

disjunct distribution In biology, a taxon with a disjunct distribution is one that has two or more groups that are related but considerably separated from each other geographically. The causes are varied and might demonstrate either the expansion or contraction of a s ...

, limited to northwestern France (

), northwestern Spain and the

Basque Country Basque Country may refer to: * Basque Country (autonomous community), as used in Spain ( es, País Vasco, link=no), also called , an Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Spain (shown in pink on the map) * French Basque Country o ...

Habitat

This species lives in temperate and humid deciduous forests.

Life cycle

Like other pulmonates, snails and slugs, the Quimper snail is hermaphrodite. Sexual maturity is reached at about two years of age. Mating takes place at mid-season and laying, usually underground, is deposited in tiny natural tunnels of the soil. There are two annual breeding periods in Brittany, with hatching occurring in the spring (April–May) and in the fall (September–October).

Feeding habits

This species of snail feeds on mycelia found on rotten, dead stumps (principally oak). Occasionally, it is coprophagous and

necrophagous Scavengers are animals that consume dead organisms that have died from causes other than predation or have been killed by other predators. While scavenging generally refers to carnivores feeding on carrion, it is also a herbivorous feeding b ...

. Like many other terrestrial gastropods, ''Elona quimperiana'' has a relatively limited dispersal capacity and probably survived during the Quaternary

glaciation A glacial period (alternatively glacial or glaciation) is an interval of time (thousands of years) within an ice age that is marked by colder temperatures and glacier advances. Interglacials, on the other hand, are periods of warmer climate betw ...

s through significant fluctuations in its distribution area, just as its deciduous forest habitat did.

References

This article incorporates CC-BY-2.0 text (but not under

GFDL The GNU Free Documentation License (GNU FDL or simply GFDL) is a copyleft license for free documentation, designed by the Free Software Foundation (FSF) for the GNU Project. It is similar to the GNU General Public License, giving readers the r ...

) from reference Vialatte A., Guiller A., Bellido A. & Madec L. (2008). "Phylogeography and historical demography of the Lusitanian snail ''Elona quimperiana'' reveal survival in unexpected separate glacial refugia". '' BMC Evolutionary Biology'' 2008, 8:339. . and a public domain text from references. Tryon G. W. (1894). ''

Manual of Conchology George Washington Tryon Jr. (20 May 1838 – 5 February 1888) was an American malacologist who worked at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. Biography George Washington Tryon was the son of Edward K. Tryon and Adeline Savidt. ...

, structural and systematic, with illustrations of the species. Second series: Pulmonata''
Volume 9
Helicidae - Volume VII. Continued by H. A. Pilsbry
page 307
308.

External links

* https://web.archive.org/web/20090526180159/http://natura2000.environnement.gouv.fr/especes/1007.html#hautpage {{DEFAULTSORT:Escargot De Quimper Elonidae Quimper Gastropods described in 1821 Taxonomy articles created by Polbot