''Vertigo geyeri'' is a species of minute 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 ...

mollusc 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 esti ...

micromollusc A micromollusk is a shelled mollusk which is extremely small, even at full adult size. The word is usually, but not exclusively, applied to marine mollusks, although in addition, numerous species of land snails and freshwater mollusks also r ...

in the family Vertiginidae, the whorl snails. The

specific name Specific name may refer to: * in Database management systems, a system-assigned name that is unique within a particular database In taxonomy, either of these two meanings, each with its own set of rules: * Specific name (botany), the two-part (bino ...

''geyeri'' is in honor of German zoologist

David Geyer David Geyer (6 November 1855 – 6 November 1932)Eugene V. Coan, Alan R. Kabat & Richard E. Petit, (15 February) 2009. ''2,400 years of malacology, 6th ed.'' 830 pp. + 32 pp. nnex of Collations American Malacological Society: http://www.malacologi ...

(1855–1932).

Description

The egg-shaped-oval shell measures just . in length and in width. There are up to five whorls with deep seams. The aperture has four small protrusions (called "teeth") (on parietal one columellar and two palatal), it can also have fewer teeth. The colour of the shell is reddish-brown and the surface is shiny. The shell has regular growth striations and is almost smooth.

Habitat

This species lives in constantly wet, calcareous flush-fens that are fed by tufa-depositing springs. In the British Isles (Ireland and United Kingdom) it often lives in association with black bog-rush ''

Schoenus nigricans ''Schoenus nigricans'' is a species of sedge known by the common names black bog-rush''Schoenus ni ...

'' and yellow sedge '' Carex viridula'', in dense short grasses and sedges with little '' Sphagnum'' moss.

Distribution and conservation status

''Vertigo geyeri'' is a boreo-alpine species, probably endemic to Europe. It occurs in the boreal, alpine, continental and Atlantic zones with a range extending from Ireland to Russia. Its populations are scattered and local extinctions of isolated populations can occur. It is mentioned in Annex II of the European Union's Habitats Directive. In the British Isles it is included in the

List of United Kingdom Biodiversity Action Plan species This is a list of United Kingdom Biodiversity Action Plan species. Some suffer because of loss of habitat, but many are in decline following the introduction of foreign species, which out-compete the native species or carry disease. See also t ...

, Great Britain (endangered in Great Britain). It occurs in such scattered locations as on

Beinn a' Ghlò Beinn a’ Ghlò is a Scottish mountain situated roughly north east of Blair Atholl in the Forest of Atholl in between Glen Tilt and Glen Loch, in Cairngorms National Park. Details It is a huge, complex hill with many ridges, summits and ...

in Eastern Scotland, in North Yorkshire, in Cumbria and in Corsydd Môn in Anglesey, where there is a large, low-altitude population in a calcareous fen. It is considered critically endangered in the Czech Republic, Its conservation status in Czech Republic in 2004-2006 is bad (U2) in report for European Commission in accordance with Habitats Directive. Dušek J., Hošek M. & Kolářová J. (2007) Hodnotící zpráva o stavu z hlediska ochrany evropsky významných druhů a typů přírodních stanovišť v České republice za rok 2004-2006. - Ochrana přírody, 62(5): appendix 5:I-IV. and it occurs in Denmark, Finland, France, Germany,

Latvia Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of ...

, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Slovakia, Ukraine,Balashov I. & Gural-Sverlova N. 2012. An annotated checklist of the terrestrial molluscs of Ukraine. ''Journal of Conchology''. 41 (1): 91-109.

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

and Switzerland.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1810878 Vertigo (gastropod) Gastropods described in 1925 Taxa named by Wassili Adolfovitch Lindholm Gastropods of Europe