''Wainuia urnula'' is a species of air-breathing predatory

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 ...

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 ...

in the family Rhytididae.

Distribution and description

This species inhabits the North Island in New Zealand. Powell A. W. B., ''New Zealand Mollusca'', William Collins Publishers Ltd, Auckland, New Zealand 1979 Species is distinctively colorful with a large reddish patch in the umbilicus with the foot being of maroon color. Shells are relatively small when compared to sub fossil shells of the native island.

Feeding habits

The diet of ''Wainuia urnula'' was found to contain

amphipod Amphipoda is an order of malacostracan crustaceans with no carapace and generally with laterally compressed bodies. Amphipods range in size from and are mostly detritivores or scavengers. There are more than 9,900 amphipod species so far descr ...

s ('' Parorchestia tenuis'') in over 80% of snails sampled.Efford M. G. 2000. ''Consumption of amphipods by the New Zealand landsnail Wainuia urnula (Pulmonata: Rhytididae)''. Journal of Molluscan Studies 66: 45–52
abstract
/ref>

Life cycle

Dimensions of a group of eggs of ''Wainuia urnula'' were: 5 × 4, 5 × 4, 5 × 4, 5 × 3.75, 4.5 × 3.5, 5.25 × 4.25 mm. O'Connor A. C. (June) 1945. ''Notes on the Eggs of New Zealand Paryphantidae, With Description of a New Subgenus.'' Transactions of the Royal Society of New Zealand, volume 5, 1945-46, page
54
57.

References

Rhytididae Gastropods described in 1930 {{Rhytididae-stub