''Vertigo genesii'',

common name In biology, a common name of a taxon or organism (also known as a vernacular name, English name, colloquial name, country name, popular name, or farmer's name) is a name that is based on the normal language of everyday life; and is often contrast ...

the round-mouthed whorl snail, 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 ...

, a

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 ...

micromollusc 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 r ...

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 genesii (Gredler, 1856). Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at: https://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=1050661 on 2023-02-08 Vertigo genesii shell 2

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 very small, ovate, obtuse, indistinctly, spaced striate, glossy purplish brown. The shell has 4½

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 rather convex, high, rapidly increasing, joined by a somewhat impressed suture, the penult large, almost ventricose. Umbilical opening is moderate. 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 ...

is semirotund, nearly quadratic, without any folds. Peristome is scarcely expanded, thickened liplike, bordered with bluish black, the margins are connected by a very weak callus, the right margin is arched at the insertion. The width of the adult shell is 1.03–1.20 mm, the height is 1.63–2.00 mm.

Anatomy

The animal body color is raven-black. The tentacles are short, contracted in the middle.

Distribution and conservation status

Vertigo-genesii Presence in European countries

IUCN red list The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biol ...

conservation dependent A conservation-dependent species is a species which has been categorised as "Conservation Dependent" ("LR/cd") by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), i.e. as dependent on conservation efforts to prevent it from becoming e ...

* It is mentioned in Annex II of the European Union's

Habitats Directive The Habitats Directive (more formally known as Council Directive 92/43/EEC on the Conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora) is a directive adopted by the European Community in 1992 as a response to the Berne Convention. The E ...

. This species occurs in: * British Isles (in the United Kingdom only):

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 ...

. It is endangered in Great Britain2001-2007
''Action plan for Vertigo genesii''
UK Biodiversity Action Plan, Joint Nature Conservation Committee. and it is listed in

List of endangered species in the British Isles This is a list of United Kingdom Biodiversity Action Plan species. Some suffer because of loss of habitat, but many are in decline following the introduction of foreign species, which out-compete the native species or carry disease. See also th ...

. * Continental Europe: Finland,

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, Norway,

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 ...

, Romania, Russian Federation,

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

, and Switzerland.

References

This article incorporates

public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work A creative work is a manifestation of creative effort including fine artwork (sculpture, paintings, drawing, sketching, performance art), dance, writing (literature), filmmaking, ...

text from reference. Pilsbry H. A. & Cooke C. M. 1918-1920. ''Manual of Conchology. Second series: Pulmonata.'
Volume 25
Pupillidae (Gastrocoptinae, Vertigininae). Philadelphia. pag
204
* Bank, R. A.; Neubert, E. (2017). Checklist of the land and freshwater Gastropoda of Europe. Last update: July 16th, 201

External links

* http://www.animalbase.uni-goettingen.de/zooweb/servlet/AnimalBase/home/species?id=1686
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 genesii Gastropods described in 1856 Molluscs of Europe