''Hyperaulax ridleyi'' 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 tropical 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 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

Odontostomidae Odontostomidae is a taxonomic family of medium-sized to large, air-breathing, tropical and sub-tropical land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod molluscs in the superfamily Orthalicoidea.Breure A. S. H. & Romero P. (2012). "Support and su ...

.Breure A. S. H. & Ablett J. D. (2012) "Annotated type catalogue of the Bothriembryontidae and Odontostomidae (Mollusca, Gastropoda, Orthalicoidea) in the Natural History Museum, London". ''

ZooKeys ''ZooKeys'' is a peer-reviewed open access scientific journal covering zoological taxonomy, phylogeny, and biogeography. It was established in 2008 and the editor-in-chief is Terry Erwin (Smithsonian Institution). It is published by Pensoft Publ ...

'' 182: 1-70. . ''Hyperaulax ridleyi'' is the

type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specimen ...

of the genus ''Hyperaulax''. This species is native to, and its occurrence is restricted to,

Fernando de Noronha Fernando de Noronha () is an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, part of the State of Pernambuco, Brazil, and located off the Brazilian coast. It consists of 21 islands and islets, extending over an area of . Only the eponymous main island is inha ...

, an island off the coast of

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

. The snail was described in 1890 by

Edgar Albert Smith Edgar Albert Smith (29 November 1847 – 22 July 1916) was a British zoologist, a malacologist. His father was Frederick Smith, a well-known entomologist, and assistant keeper of zoology in the British Museum, Bloomsbury. Edgar Albert Smith w ...

, a zoologist with the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

. The type specimen is stored in the

British Museum of Natural History The Natural History Museum in London is a museum that exhibits a vast range of specimens from various segments of natural history. It is one of three major museums on Exhibition Road in South Kensington, the others being the Science Museum an ...

.Breure, A. S. H . & J. R. Schouten (27 February 1985). "Notes on and descriptions of Bulimulidae (Mollusca, Gastropoda), III." ''

Zoologische Verhandelingen ''Zoologische Verhandelingen'' was a Dutch scientific journal covering research in zoology. It was published between 1948 and 2002 by the Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie in Leiden Leiden (; in English and archaic Dutch also Leyden) is ...

'' Leiden 216: 1-98, figs. 1-33, pls. 1-4.
PDF
/ref>

Shell description

The

shell Shell may refer to: Architecture and design * Shell (structure), a thin structure ** Concrete shell, a thin shell of concrete, usually with no interior columns or exterior buttresses ** Thin-shell structure Science Biology * Seashell, a hard ou ...

is umbilicated, ovate, conic above, moderately solid, brown with a buff line at the periphery, very delicately sculptured with lines of growth, and sometimes has low wrinkles and fine impressed spiral striae. 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 ...

of the shell is conic. The

apex The apex is the highest point of something. The word may also refer to: Arts and media Fictional entities * Apex (comics), a teenaged super villainess in the Marvel Universe * Ape-X, a super-intelligent ape in the Squadron Supreme universe *Apex ...

is obtuse. The

sculpture Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

of the nepionic

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 whorls immediately following the embryonic whorls) has superficial vermiculate (worm-like) wrinkles. The shell has 5½ slightly convex whorls. The last whorl is a little descending and then slightly ascending in front, distinctly constricted behind the peristome. The base of the shell is perforated by a deep and conspicuous, though not wide, umbilicus. The shell

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 ovate, and is a fleshy-brown color inside. There is a pale median line in half the length of the shell. The peristome is flatly reflexed throughout. The outer lip is subangularly arcuate above, terminations joined by a thin or thick parietal callus, which is thickened and somewhat tubercular above, separated by a vertical groove or channel from a similar callous lobe on the outer lip, near its insertion. The width of the shell is 6.2-7.2 mm. The height of the shell is 10.5-12.5 mm. The height of the aperture is 5.2-6.2 mm. The width of the type specimen is 5.9. The height of the type specimen is 11.4.

Habitat

It lives in trees and on the ground.''Hyperaulax ridleyi'' (Smith, 1890)
CdB - Conchology. Accessed 22 December 2009

Predators

* ''

Amphisbaena ridleyi ''Amphisbaena ridleyi'', known by the common names Ridley's worm lizard or the Noronha worm lizard, is a species of amphisbaenian in the Family (biology), family Amphisbaenidae. The species is Endemism, endemic to the island of Fernando de Noronh ...

References

This article incorporates public domain text from reference.

Pilsbry H. A. (1897-1898) ''

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 11
American Bulimulidae: Bulimulus, Neopetraeus, Oxychona, and South American Drymaeus''. Continued by H. A. Pilsbry
page 82-83plate 14
figure 11-13.

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hyperaulax Ridleyi Odontostomidae Gastropods described in 1890 Taxa named by Edgar Albert Smith