''Xeroplexa strucki'' 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 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

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 ...

in the family

Geomitridae Geomitridae is a Taxonomy (biology), taxonomic Family (biology), family of small to medium-sized air-breathing land snails, Terrestrial molluscs, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusks in the superfamily Helicoidea.MolluscaBase eds. (2021). M ...

. Although named by Maltzan (1886), no differences from '' X. olisippensis'' were indicated and Gittenberger (1993: 285) therefore treated them as synonyms. However, the present study has revealed that the W.

Algarve The Algarve (, , ; from ) is the southernmost NUTS II region of continental Portugal. It has an area of with 467,495 permanent inhabitants and incorporates 16 municipalities ( ''concelhos'' or ''municípios'' in Portuguese). The region has it ...

populations named as ''strucki'' and similar snails from the coast of W. Baixo Alentejo differ consistently in having a much shorter penial flagellum.

Description

Much like some populations of '' X. olisippensis'' in shell characters, being rather small and typically with a very narrow or narrow umbilicus, but several populations have the umbilicus larger. Shells of this species were figured as '' X. olisippensis'' by several authors.

Distribution

Endemic in southwestern

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

where known only in W.

(over limestone and on sandy coastal slopes) and on coastal sands of W. Baixo Alentejo northwards to Costa de San André.

References

External links

* http://luisjavierchueca.com/research-3/candidula-s-l/ {{Taxonbar, from=Q65057417 strucki Gastropods described in 1886