''Maizaniella sapoensis'' 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 ...

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 ...

with an operculum, 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 ...

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

Maizaniidae Maizaniidae is a family of minute land snails with an operculum, terrestrial gastropod mollusks in the superfamily Cyclophoroidea (according to the taxonomy of the Gastropoda by Bouchet & Rocroi, 2005). This family has no subfamilies. Genera ...

Taxonomy

The specific name ''sapoensis'' is named after

Sapo National Park Sapo National Park is a national park in Sinoe County, Liberia Liberia (), officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country on the West African coast. It is bordered by Sierra Leone to Liberia–Sierra Leone border, its northwest, Guine ...

Liberia Liberia (), officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country on the West African coast. It is bordered by Sierra Leone to Liberia–Sierra Leone border, its northwest, Guinea to its north, Ivory Coast to its east, and the Atlantic Ocean ...

, where it lives. The species is provisionally attributed to the subgenus '' Spirulozania'' on account of the conspicuous spiral sculpture. Type material is stored in the National Museum of Natural History, Leiden (

Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie The Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie (National Museum of Natural History) was a museum on the Rapenburg in Leiden, the Netherlands. It was founded in 1820 by Royal Decree from a merger of several existing collections. This happened on the initi ...

Distribution

Distribution of ''Maizaniella sapoensis'' include

and it is only known from the type locality, .

Description

She shape of the shell is high-spired in comparison with other ''Maizaniella'' species. The color of the

periostracum The periostracum ( ) is a thin, organic coating (or "skin") that is the outermost layer of the shell of many shelled animals, including molluscs and brachiopods. Among molluscs, it is primarily seen in snails and clams, i.e. in gastropods and ...

is pale yellow-brown. The shell has three

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

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 ...

is regularly curved, with thin axial ribs (about 20 on the third whorl) and with fine spiral threads. The aperture is large and circular, about 1 mm in diameter. The umbilicus is narrow. The size of the shell is extremely small (about 2.1 mm wide at three whorls). The width of the shell is 2.05-2.3 mm. The height of the shell is from 1.88 m to estimated 2.1 mm.

Ecology

It was recorded in a floor litter from higher spots in a swampy area in wet undisturbed lowland rainforest (evergreen forest) at altitude 140 m.

References

This article incorporates Creative Commons (CC-BY-3.0) text from the reference

External links

{{Taxonbar, from=Q24884985 Maizaniidae