''Macrochlamys indica'' or the horntail 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

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

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

Ariophantidae Ariophantidae is a taxonomic family of air-breathing land snails and semi-slugs, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusks in the superfamily Helicarionoidea (according to the taxonomy of the Gastropoda by Bouchet & Rocroi, 2005). Distribution ...

Distribution

This species occurs in countries including: *

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

, Lower Bengal, common at

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...

. *

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Medit ...

This species has not yet become established in the USA, but it is considered to represent a potentially serious threat as a pest, an invasive species which could negatively affect agriculture, natural ecosystems, human health or commerce. Therefore, it has been suggested that this species be given top national

quarantine A quarantine is a restriction on the movement of people, animals and goods which is intended to prevent the spread of disease or pests. It is often used in connection to disease and illness, preventing the movement of those who may have been ...

significance in the USA.Cowie R. H., Dillon R. T., Robinson D. G. & Smith J. W. (2009). "Alien non-marine snails and slugs of priority quarantine importance in the United States: A preliminary risk assessment". ''American Malacological Bulletin'' 27: 113-132
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. In October 2020 a single horntail was found in

Miami-Dade County, Florida Miami-Dade County is a county located in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of Florida. The county had a population of 2,701,767 as of the 2020 census, making it the most populous county in Florida and the seventh-most populous county in ...

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 o ...

is perforate, depressed, smooth, polished throughout, translucent, pale brownish tawny, not distinctly striated, but with microscopic longitudinal impressed lines, slightly flexuous and not close together. 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 a ...

is low, conoid. The suture is slightly impressed. The shell has 5.5 whorls, that are slightly convex above. The

last whorl The body whorl is part of the morphology (biology), morphology of the gastropod shell, shell in those gastropod mollusks that possess a coiled shell. The term is also sometimes used in a similar way to describe the shell of a cephalopod mollusk ...

is not descending. The last whorl is rounded at the periphery and moderately convex beneath. 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 ...

is slightly oblique and broadly lunate. The peristome is thin in one plane, with columellar margin is curved, oblique, never quite vertical, carried forward and briefly reflected above. The width of the shell is 16-18.5 mm. The height of the shell is 8.5 mm.

Anatomy

The animal is purplish grey not black, elongate. The right shell-lobe is small, the left is narrowly reflected over the edge of the peristome, and at the basal side gives off a short tongue-like process. The right dorsal lobe is narrow and elongate, the left in two distinct portions. In the genitalia is a moderately long cylindrical blunt kalc-sac is given off at the junction of the vas deferens, and the caecum of the penis, to which the retractor muscle is attached, is sharply coiled. The dart-sac is long, the spermatheca short and elongately pearshaped. The radula contains about 88 rows of teeth, with the arrangement: 34.2.9.1.9.2.34 (45.1.45).

References

The article incorporates public domain text from the reference. Blanford W. T. & Godwin-Austen H. H. 1908. ''

The Fauna of British India, Including Ceylon and Burma ''The Fauna of British India'' (short title) with long titles including ''The Fauna of British India, Including Ceylon and Burma'', and ''The Fauna of British India Including the Remainder of the Oriental Region'' is a series of scientific books th ...

''
Mollusca. Testacellidae and Zonitidae
'. Taylor & Francis, London
page 95
96.

Distribution

Shell description

Anatomy

References

Further reading