''Peringia ulvae'' (or ''Hydrobia ulvae''), common name the Laver spire shell or mudsnail, is a

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

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 very small aquatic snail with

gill A gill () is a respiratory organ that many aquatic organisms use to extract dissolved oxygen from water and to excrete carbon dioxide. The gills of some species, such as hermit crabs, have adapted to allow respiration on land provided they are ...

s and an operculum, a 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

Hydrobiidae Hydrobiidae, commonly known as mud snails, is a large cosmopolitan family of very small freshwater and brackish water snails with an operculum; they are in the order Littorinimorpha. Distribution Hydrobiidae are found in much of the world, ...

.Gofas, S. (2010). ''Hydrobia ulvae'' (Pennant, 1777). In: Bouchet, P.; Gofas, S.; Rosenberg, G. (2010) World Marine Mollusca database. Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=140126 on 2010-11-27. This is arguably a marine snail, but it is often also listed as a non-marine species because it tolerates

brackish water Brackish water, sometimes termed brack water, is water occurring in a natural environment that has more salinity than freshwater, but not as much as seawater. It may result from mixing seawater (salt water) and fresh water together, as in estuari ...

and lives in

salt marsh A salt marsh or saltmarsh, also known as a coastal salt marsh or a tidal marsh, is a coastal ecosystem in the upper coastal intertidal zone between land and open saltwater or brackish water that is regularly flooded by the tides. It is domin ...

es and similar habitats. ''Peringia ulvae'' is the

type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specime ...

of the genus ''Peringia''.

Distribution

This species occurs on the coasts of the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain. The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and ...

, the

White Sea The White Sea (russian: Белое море, ''Béloye móre''; Karelian and fi, Vienanmeri, lit. Dvina Sea; yrk, Сэрако ямʼ, ''Serako yam'') is a southern inlet of the Barents Sea located on the northwest coast of Russia. It is s ...

the Eastern

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe an ...

and the western

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ...

, (the Mediterranean records may be in error) including: *

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It i ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

The Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

The type locality is "on the shores of

Flintshire , settlement_type = County , image_skyline = , image_alt = , image_caption = , image_flag = , image_shield = Arms of Flint ...

", Wales, United Kingdom. The distribution type is Oceanic Wide Temperate Hydrobia ulvae 2008-09-09

Description

This species was originally described by Welsh naturalist

Thomas Pennant Thomas Pennant (14 June OS 172616 December 1798) was a Welsh naturalist, traveller, writer and antiquarian. He was born and lived his whole life at his family estate, Downing Hall near Whitford, Flintshire, in Wales. As a naturalist he h ...

in 1777. Pennant's original text (the type description) reads as follows: "T." is an abbreviated word ''testa'' from

Latin language Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of t ...

, that means "shell". 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 often heavily corroded, usually whitish with brown peristome present on 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 ...

. The shell has 5-7 very weakly 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 ...

, that are regularly increasing but not always regularly rounded. The lip is attached to the last whorl. The width of the shell is 2.5–3 mm. The height of the shell is 4-5.5 mm.

Habitat

''Peringia ulvae'' is a widespread and abundant member of the benthic fauna of estuarine habitats and coastal brackish and salt waters. It is very common in

and saltwater, in

estuaries An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environmen ...

and

es. It is most common in the upper half of the intertidal zone. It tolerates salinity 1.0-3.3 %. ''Peringia ulvae'' seems to prefer more exposed localities with less vegetation than the mudsnails ''

Ecrobia ventrosa ''Ecrobia ventrosa'', common name spire snail, is a European species of small brackish water snail with a gill and an operculum, an aquatic gastropod mollusk in the family Hydrobiidae. Distribution This species occurs on the coasts of: * Ice ...

'' and ''

Hydrobia neglecta '' Hydrobia acuta neglecta'' is a European subspecies of small brackish water snail with a gill and an operculum, an aquatic gastropod mollusk in the family Hydrobiidae. Distribution This species which has a distribution type: oceanic temp ...

''. ''Peringia ulvae'' feeds on detritus and it also consumes

seaweeds Seaweed, or macroalgae, refers to thousands of species of macroscopic, multicellular, marine algae. The term includes some types of '' Rhodophyta'' (red), ''Phaeophyta'' (brown) and ''Chlorophyta'' (green) macroalgae. Seaweed species such as ...

directly. It is pederictional dioecious with sexes being easily identified through dissection. On the west coast of

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

this species has peaks of

spawning Spawn is the eggs and sperm released or deposited into water by aquatic animals. As a verb, ''to spawn'' refers to the process of releasing the eggs and sperm, and the act of both sexes is called spawning. Most aquatic animals, except for aquat ...

activity in spring and autumn and produces planktotrophic larvae (

veliger A veliger is the planktonic larva of many kinds of sea snails and freshwater snails, as well as most bivalve molluscs (clams) and tusk shells. Description The veliger is the characteristic larva of the gastropod, bivalve and scaphopod ...

)Fish J. D. & Fish S. (1977). "The veliger larva of ''Hydrobia ulvae'' with observations on the veliger of ''Littorina littorea'' (Mollusca: Prosobranchia)". '' Journal of Zoology'' 182(4): 495-503. . that remain in the plankton for up to four weeks before settlement. This period of development affords the potential for dispersal to new habitats and mixing with geographically separate populations. The species provides an interesting case for molecular analysis as the pelagic dispersal phase raises fascinating questions on gene flow, differentiation, recruitment, and

inbreeding Inbreeding is the production of offspring from the mating or breeding of individuals or organisms that are closely related genetically. By analogy, the term is used in human reproduction, but more commonly refers to the genetic disorders and o ...

, but there remains the potential for self-recruitment of estuarine populations. One of its natural predators is the Arctic barrel-bubble (''

Retusa obtusa ''Retusa obtusa'', common name the "Arctic barrel-bubble", is a species of very small head-shield sea snail or bubble shell, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Retusidae Retusidae is a family of very small sea snails, barrel-bubble snai ...

''). In Ireland ''Peringia ulvae'' is an important source of food for overwintering waders.

References

This article incorporates public domain text from references"Species summary for ''Peringia ulvae''"

AnimalBase AnimalBase is a project brought to life in 2004 and is maintained by the University of Göttingen, Germany. The goal of the AnimalBase project is to digitize early zoological literature, provide copyright-free open access to zoological works, and pr ...

, last modified 30 March 2009, accessed 16 September 2011. and CC-BY-2.0 text from the referenceBrownlow R. J., Dawson D. A., Horsburgh G. J., Bell J. J. & Fish J. D. (2008). "A method for genotype validation and primer assessment in heterozygote-deficient species, as demonstrated in the prosobranch mollusc ''Hydrobia ulvae''". '' BMC Genetics'' 9: 55. .

External links

''Peringia ulvae''
at

Animalbase AnimalBase is a project brought to life in 2004 and is maintained by the University of Göttingen, Germany. The goal of the AnimalBase project is to digitize early zoological literature, provide copyright-free open access to zoological works, and pr ...

taxonomy,short description, distribution, biology,status
''Peringia ulvae''
Species account and photograph at Mollusc Ireland. {{Taxonbar, from=Q220088 Hydrobiidae Molluscs of the Atlantic Ocean Molluscs described in 1777 Taxa named by Thomas Pennant

Distribution

Description

Habitat

References

Further reading

External links