''Mariaella beddomei'' is a species of air-breathing land

slug Slug, or land slug, is a common name for any apparently shell-less terrestrial gastropod mollusc. The word ''slug'' is also often used as part of the common name of any gastropod mollusc that has no shell, a very reduced shell, or only a smal ...

, 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 in the family Ariophantidae. The specific name is in honor of Richard Henry Beddome.

Distribution

This species lives in India. It is endemic to Western Ghats.Mavinkurve R. G., Shanbhag S. P. & Madhyastha N. A. 2004
Checklist of terrestrial gastropods of Karnataka, India''
Zoos' Print Journal 19(11):1684-1686. Its localities include

Travancore Hills The Kingdom of Travancore ( /ˈtrævənkɔːr/), also known as the Kingdom of Thiruvithamkoor, was an Indian kingdom from c. 1729 until 1949. It was ruled by the Travancore Royal Family from Padmanabhapuram, and later Thiruvananthapuram. At ...

Shell description

The internal shell is thinner than in '' Mariaella dussumieri'', shelly, flat and smooth beneath, white, with close, concentric lines of growth. The length of the adult shell is 12 mm, the breath is 6.5 mm.

Anatomy

The body of the animal varies greatly in color from uniform ochre to deep grey-black or spotted. There are no raised ridges on the shell-lobes. It is externally similar to ''Mariaella dussumieri'', but larger, about in length when fully extended. It has more numerous teeth in the

radula The radula (, ; plural radulae or radulas) is an anatomical structure used by molluscs for feeding, sometimes compared to a tongue. It is a minutely toothed, chitinous ribbon, which is typically used for scraping or cutting food before the food ...

, the number in a row being 122 . 5 . 21 . 1 . 21 . 5 . 122 (148 . 1 . 148), and the shape differing somewhat. There are also differences in the genitalia, the spermatheca and the expansion in the free oviduct (ovitheca) having different forms. Slug tadiandamol

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''
Mollusca. Testacellidae and Zonitidae
'. Taylor & Francis, London
page 206
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mariaella Beddomei Ariophantidae Gastropods described in 1888