The emerald green snail, green tree snail, or Manus green tree snail, scientific name ''Papustyla pulcherrima'', sometimes listed as ''Papuina pulcherrima'', is a species of large, air-breathing

tree snail Tree snail is a common name that is applied to various kinds of tropical air-breathing land snails, pulmonate gastropod mollusks that have shells, and that live in trees, in other words, are exclusively arboreal in habitat. Some other species ...

, 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 gastropod

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

Camaenidae Camaenidae is a family of air-breathing land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusks in the superfamily Helicoidea, the typical snails and their allies. This is one of the most diverse families in the clade Stylommatophora. Th ...

. MolluscaBase eds. (2021). MolluscaBase. Papustyla pulcherrima (I. Rensch, 1931). Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at: http://marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=1301562 on 2021-06-08 The shells of this species were in demand for making jewelry, and were popular with shell collectors and, partly as a result of this, the species is now near being threatened.

Distribution and habitat

''P. pulcherrima'' is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found else ...

Manus Island Manus Island is part of Manus Province in northern Papua New Guinea and is the largest of the Admiralty Islands. It is the fifth-largest island in Papua New Guinea, with an area of , measuring around . Manus Island is covered in rugged jungles w ...

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

. This snail lives in trees, and inhabits

rain forest Rainforests are characterized by a closed and continuous tree canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforest can be classified as tropical rainforest or temperate rainforest ...

areas up to above sea level.

Description

The shell of this species is a vivid green color, which is unusual in snails. The green color is however not within the solid, calcium carbonate part of the shell but instead it is a very thin protein layer known as the periostracum. Under the periostracum the shell is yellow.

Endangered

Overharvesting Overexploitation, also called overharvesting, refers to harvesting a renewable resource to the point of diminishing returns. Continued overexploitation can lead to the destruction of the resource, as it will be unable to replenish. The term ap ...

of the species for commercial purposes led to a decline in the population of this snail. Logging of the rain forest where this species lives is also a serious threat to its surviva

The snail and its shell are protected under

CITES CITES (shorter name for the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, also known as the Washington Convention) is a multilateral treaty to protect endangered plants and animals from the threats of interna ...

(Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) and the species is listed in the IUCN Red List as near threatened as of 2015. ''Papustyla pulcherrima'' is the only foreign gastropod species that is listed as Federally Endangered in the United States since 2 June 1970. U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (Last updated 5 January 2010)
Species Profile for Manus Island Tree snail (''Papustyla pulcherrima'')."
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service website. Accessed 6 January 2010.

References

* Rensch, I. (1931). Beitrag zur Kenntnis der Schneckenfauna der Admiralitätsinseln. Zoologischer Anzeiger. 95(5): 186-194.

External links

Clench, W. J.; Turner, R. D. (1963 ["1962"
. Monographs of the Genera Papustyla, Forcartia and Meliobba (Papuininae: Camaenidae). Journal of the Malacological Society of Australia. 1(6): 3-33] Camaenidae Molluscs of Papua New Guinea Endemic fauna of Papua New Guinea Gastropods described in 1931 Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{Camaenidae-stub