''Vertigo alpestris'' 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, 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 ...

mollusc 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 esti ...

s or

micromollusk A micromollusk is a shelled mollusk which is extremely small, even at full adult size. The word is usually, but not exclusively, applied to marine mollusks, although in addition, numerous species of land snails and freshwater mollusks also ...

s in the family

Vertiginidae Vertiginidae, common name the whorl snails, is a family of minute, air-breathing land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod molluscs or micromollusks in the superfamily Pupilloidea. Distribution The distribution of the Vertiginidae is in the ...

, the whorl snails. MolluscaBase eds. (2023). MolluscaBase. Vertigo alpestris Alder, 1838. Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at: https://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=1050658 on 2023-02-07 ;Subspecies: * † ''Vertigo alpestris tobieni'' Schlickum & Strauch, 1979 * ''Vertigo alpestris uturyotoensis'' Kuroda & Hukuda, 1944

Shell 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 subcylindrical, thin and semitransparent, closely and rather strongly striate in the line of growth. Its color is very glossy, a pale yellowish-horn-color. The periphery is rounded: epidermis thin. The shell has 4½ 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 ...

, but slightly compressed. The

spire A spire is a tall, slender, pointed structure on top of a roof of a building or tower, especially at the summit of church steeples. A spire may have a square, circular, or polygonal plan, with a roughly conical or pyramidal shape. Spires are ...

is short, abrupt and bluntly pointed. The suture is excessively deep. The shell

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 ...

is semioval and subangular, owing to the outward compression of the periphery. The aperture has 4 teeth: one sharp and prominent tooth on the middle of the pillar arietal wall one strong and also prominent and thick tooth on the pillar lip, and two lamellae or plate-like teeth which are placed at some little distance within the outer lip, but not on any rib or callous fold as in ''

Vertigo pygmaea ''Vertigo pygmaea'', common name the "crested vertigo", is a species of minute air-breathing land snail, a terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusk in the family Vertiginidae, the whorl snails. MolluscaBase eds. (2023). MolluscaBase. Vertigo pygm ...

''. The labial teeth are visible on the outside, owing to the thinness and transparency of the shell. The outer lip is rather thick and very slightly reflected, not strengthened by any rib either outside or inside. The outer edge is abruptly reflected. The inner lip is somewhat thickened in adult specimen. The umbilicus is small and narrow, but rather deep. The width of the adult shell is 0.9-1.1 mm, the height is 1.6-2.15 mm.''Species summary for Vertigo alpestris''
AnimalBase, accessed 23 June 2009.

Distribution

This species occurs in countries and islands including: *

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedon ...

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

Slovakia Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the s ...

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

Balashov I. & Gural-Sverlova N. 2012. An annotated checklist of the terrestrial molluscs of Ukraine. ''Journal of Conchology''. 41 (1): 91-109. *

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 is ...

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...

References

This article incorporates public domain text from the reference Pilsbry H. A. & Cooke C. M. 1918-1920. ''Manual of Conchology. Second series: Pulmonata.'
Volume 25
Pupillidae (Gastrocoptinae, Vertigininae). Philadelphia. pag
197
* Bank, R. A.; Neubert, E. (2017). Checklist of the land and freshwater Gastropoda of Europe. Last update: July 16th, 2017 * Sysoev, A. V. & Schileyko, A. A. (2009). Land snails and slugs of Russia and adjacent countries. Sofia/Moskva (Pensoft). 312 pp., 142 plates.

External links

Distribution of ''Vertigo alpestris''
at

European Environment Agency The European Environment Agency (EEA) is the agency of the European Union (EU) which provides independent information on the environment. Definition The European Environment Agency (EEA) is the agency of the European Union (EU) which provides i ...

webpage
Alder, J. (1838). Supplement to a catalogue of the land and fresh-water Testaceous Mollusca, found in the vicinity of Newcastle. Transactions of the Natural History Society of Northumberland, Durham and Newcastle upon Tyne. 2:337-342.

Pfeiffer, L. (1847). Diagnosen neuer Landschnecken. Zeitschrift für Malakozoologie. Cassel (Theodor Fischer). 4 (10): 145-151

Gredler, V. M. (1856). Tirols Land- und Süßwasser-Conchylien I. Die Landconchylien. Verhandlungen der Kaiserlich-königlichen Zoologisch-botanischen Gesellschaft in Wien. 6: 25–162. Wien
{{Commons category alpestris Gastropods described in 1838