''Spelaeoconcha paganettii'' 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 very small 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 ...

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 ...

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 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 superfamily

Pupilloidea Pupilloidea is a superfamily of small and very small air-breathing land snails, terrestrial gastropod mollusks in the infraorder '' Pupilloidei'' . Taxonomy This superfamily contains the following families: * Achatinellidae Gulick, 1873 * Agard ...

. The genus is

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispec ...

, as also is the family.

Taxonomy

The family Spelaeoconchidae is classified within the informal group

Orthurethra Orthurethra is a clade of air-breathing land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusks in the clade Stylommatophora. In the taxonomy of the Gastropoda by Bouchet & Rocroi, 2005, Orthurethra is treated as an informal group and subcla ...

, itself belonging to the

clade A clade (), also known as a monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that are monophyletic – that is, composed of a common ancestor and all its lineal descendants – on a phylogenetic tree. Rather than the English term, ...

Stylommatophora Stylommatophora is an orderPhilippe Bouchet, Jean-Pierre Rocroi, Bernhard Hausdorf, Andrzej Kaim, Yasunori Kano, Alexander Nützel, Pavel Parkhaev, Michael Schrödl and Ellen E. Strong. 2017. Revised Classification, Nomenclator and Typification ...

within the clade

Eupulmonata Eupulmonata is a taxonomic clade of air-breathing snails. The great majority of this group are land snails and slugs, but some are marine and some are saltmarsh snails that can tolerate salty conditions. Linnean taxonomy *Suborder Eupulmonat ...

(according to the taxonomy of the Gastropoda by Bouchet & Rocroi, 2005). The family Spelaeoconchidae has no subfamilies (according to the taxonomy of the Gastropoda by Bouchet & Rocroi, 2005). ''Spelaeoconcha paganettii'' is the only species in the genus ''Spelaeoconcha'' and ''Spelaeoconcha'' is the only genus in the family Spelaeoconchidae. ''Spelaeoconcha'' is the

type genus In biological taxonomy, the type genus is the genus which defines a biological family and the root of the family name. Zoological nomenclature According to the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, "The name-bearing type of a nominal f ...

of the family Spelaeoconchidae.

Distribution

The distribution of ''Spelaeoconcha paganettii'' includes Croatia, Bosnia and Hercegovina.

Description

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 ou ...

is whitish or pale yellowish, almost smooth and very shiny. The shell has 7 not very convex whorls. The

last whorl The body whorl is part of the morphology of the 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. In gastropods In gastropods, the b ...

is ascending shortly before the

aperture In optics, an aperture is a hole or an opening through which light travels. More specifically, the aperture and focal length of an optical system determine the cone angle of a bundle of rays that come to a focus in the image plane. An opt ...

. The aperture is without teeth. Apertural margin is thickened except on upper side, and with a wavy contour seen from the side. Umbilicus is open but very narrow, only partly covered by columellar margin of the aperture. The width of the shell is 2.5–2.6 mm. The height of the shell is 5.4–6.1 mm.

Ecology

This small snail was found under stone rubble, on blackish-brown soil in a cave.

References

This article incorporates public domain text from the reference "Species summary for ''Spelaeoconcha paganettii''"

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 12 August 2008, accessed 5 April 2011. {{Taxonbar, from2=Q291744, from1=Q18585334, from3=Q27982664 Gastropods described in 1901 Monotypic gastropod genera