''Monterissa gowerensis'', also known as the Lord Howe microturban, 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 minute cave

snail A snail is, in loose terms, a shelled gastropod. The name is most often applied to land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod molluscs. However, the common name ''snail'' is also used for most of the members of the molluscan class G ...

s with an operculum, 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 ...

s in the family

Hydrocenidae Hydrocenidae is a taxonomic family of minute land snails or cave snails with an operculum, terrestrial gastropod mollusks or micromollusks in the clade Cycloneritimorpha. Hydrocenidae are widespread across the Palearctis and Africa, but r ...

Description

The globosely turbinate shell of adult snails is 2.1–2.4 mm in height, with a diameter of 1.7–2 mm, with deeply impressed sutures. It is smooth, glossy and pale golden-brown in colour. The umbilicus is closed. The ovately lunate aperture has an operculum.

Distribution and habitat

This terrestrial and freshwater species occurs on Australia's

Lord Howe Island Lord Howe Island (; formerly Lord Howe's Island) is an irregularly crescent-shaped volcanic remnant in the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand, part of the Australian state of New South Wales. It lies directly east of mainland P ...

in the

Tasman Sea The Tasman Sea ( Māori: ''Te Tai-o-Rēhua'', ) is a marginal sea of the South Pacific Ocean, situated between Australia and New Zealand. It measures about across and about from north to south. The sea was named after the Dutch explorer ...

, where it is rare and found mainly on the slopes of

Mount Gower Mount Gower (also known as Big Hill), is the highest mountain on Australia's subtropical Lord Howe Island in the Tasman Sea. With a height of above sea level, and a relatively flat summit plateau, it stands at the southern end of Lord Howe, just ...

and

Mount Lidgbird Mount Lidgbird, also Mount Ledgbird and Big Hill, is located in the southern section of Lord Howe Island, just north of Mount Gower, from which it is separated by the saddle at the head of Erskine Valley, and has its peak at above sea level. ...

in leaf litter and cliff crevices.

References

Hydrocenidae Gastropods of Lord Howe Island Vulnerable fauna of Australia Gastropods described in 1944 Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Taxa named by Tom Iredale {{Neritimorpha-stub