''Pittieria aurantiaca'' is a species of predatory 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

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

Spiraxidae Spiraxidae is a family of predatory air-breathing land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropods in the superfamily Testacelloidea (according to the taxonomy of the Gastropoda by Bouchet & Rocroi, 2005). Distribution The distribution of th ...

. This species was described based on only one specimen. This specimen was collected by William More Gabb (1839-1878) in Costa Rica, and the species was described under the name ''Euglandina aurantiaca'' by

George French Angas George French Angas (25 April 1822 – 4 October 1886), also known as G.F.A., was an English explorer, naturalist, painter and poet who emigrated to Australia. His paintings are held in a number of important Australian public art collections. ...

in 1879, after Gabb's death. The species was subsequently moved to the genus ''Pittieria'', which was created by Eduard von Martens in 1901. This snail is carnivorous but it also eats honeydew while that substance is being produced by a species of

lantern bug The family Fulgoridae is a large group of hemipteran insects, especially abundant and diverse in the tropics, containing over 125 genera worldwide. They are mostly of moderate to large size, many with a superficial resemblance to Lepidoptera due t ...

. A species of carpenter ant has been observed climbing onto the head of the snail in order to steal some of the honeydew while the snail is feeding in this way.

Distribution

The type locality of ''Pittieria aurantiaca'' was described as "from the hilly country", in

Costa Rica Costa Rica (, ; ; literally "Rich Coast"), officially the Republic of Costa Rica ( es, República de Costa Rica), is a country in the Central American region of North America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the no ...

. It is now known to occur in the following countries and areas: *

: Barrientos Z. (2003). "Lista de especies de moluscos terrestres (Archaeogastropoda, Mesogastropoda, Archaeopulmonata, Stylommatophora, Soleolifera) informadas para Costa Rica". '' Revista de Biología Tropical'' 51(Suppl. 3): 293-304
PDF
** North-eastern Costa Rica: Puerto Viejo de Sarapiquí, San Miguel Martens E. v. (1901). ''Biologia Centrali-Americana. Mollusca.'' 601-706. British Museum (Natural History)
page 612
** Eastern Costa Rica:

Turrialba Turrialba may refer to: Places * Turrialba Volcano * Turrialba Volcano National Park, created around Turrialba Volcano. * Turrialba (canton), located in Cartago Province * Turrialba (district), located in Turrialba canton. Other * Turrialba cheese ...

, Tuis, 500-650

m.a.s.l. Height above mean sea level is a measure of the vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) of a location in reference to a historic mean sea level taken as a vertical datum. In geodesy, it is formalized as ''orthometric heights''. The com ...

, Santa Clara, 200–500 m.a.s.l.,

Cordillera de Talamanca The Cordillera de Talamanca is a mountain range that lies in the southeast half of Costa Rica and the far west of Panama. Much of the range and the area around it is included in La Amistad International Park, which also is shared between the two ...

** South-western Costa Rica: Valley of Baca,

Terraba The Naso or Teribe people (also Tjër Di) are an indigenous people of Panama and Costa Rica. They primarily live in northwest Panama in the Bocas del Toro Province and Naso Tjër Di Comarca. There are roughly 3,500 people who belong to the Naso ...

* Panama:

Bocas del Toro Bocas del Toro (; meaning "Mouth of the Bull") is a province of Panama. Its area is 4,643.9 square kilometers, comprising the mainland and nine main islands. The province consists of the Bocas del Toro Archipelago, Bahía Almirante (Almirante Bay ...

Description

The shell of ''Pittieria aurantiaca'' is fusiformly oblong, moderately thin and smooth. The surface is shiny. The color is a bright tawny orange, darker towards the base of the columella. The shell has 5½ slightly convex

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 spire is papillose and obtuse. The suture has a dark purple colour and is impressed. The columella is slightly oblique, shortly truncated in front. The outer lip is moderately arcuate, simple, not effuse towards the base. The aperture is elliptically oblong and is a pale rosy purple within. The aperture covers half of the length of the shell. The width of the shell is 13 mm. The height of the shell is 29–30 mm. The height of the aperture is 15–16 mm.

Ecology

All Spiraxidae are thought to be

carnivorous A carnivore , or meat-eater (Latin, ''caro'', genitive ''carnis'', meaning meat or "flesh" and ''vorare'' meaning "to devour"), is an animal or plant whose food and energy requirements derive from animal tissues (mainly muscle, fat and other sof ...

. ''Pittieria aurantiaca'' has been observed to feed on honeydew produced and ejected by '' Enchophora sanguinea'' (a lantern bug in the family Fulgoridae). This is thought to be the first known trophobiotic interaction between a gastropod and an insect. It was also observed that sometimes ants of an undescribed species in the genus '' Camponotus'' ( JTL-005
JTL-005 on AntWeb
positioned themselves on the head of the snail in order to "steal" ( kleptotrophobiosis) honeydew from the head of the snail. The snail did not appear to be disturbed in any way by this behavior of the ants.

References

This article incorporates public domain text from the reference {{Taxonbar, from=Q7199119 Spiraxidae Gastropods described in 1879