Gyraulus laevis is a small species of freshwater snail, an aquatic pulmonate gastropod mollusc in the family Planorbidae, the ram's horn snails.

Gyraulus laevis
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Gastropoda
Superorder: Hygrophila
Family: Planorbidae
Genus: Gyraulus
Species:
G. laevis
Binomial name
Gyraulus laevis
(Alder, 1838)[1]

Distribution

edit

Found mainly in the northern parts of Europe East to Siberia and north-east Asia. Distribution type: Eurasian Boreo-temperate. The distribution of this species is Holarctic:

Habitat

edit

This small snail lives on water plants in freshwater. It favours sunny clean and silent shallow water zones with moderately rich vegetation. It is often found in undisturbed waters which are eutrophic but with a rich oxygen contents, Gyraulus laevis is also as a pioneer species (in lake margins that are in the process of becoming land)

Shell description

edit

For terms see gastropod shell. The 1-2.5 x 3.0-4.5 mm shell is nearly planispiral in its coiling. The shell has 3-4 strongly convex whorls with a deep suture, at the lower side the whorls are in one regular plain and never keeled. The upper side is concave. The colour is horn brown and the surface is shiny, irregularly striated and with no spiral sculpture.

References

edit
  1. ^ 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 and Durham 1(3): 337-342. Newcastle.
  2. ^ Glöer P. & Meier-Brook C. (2003) Süsswassermollusken. DJN, pp. 134, page 107, ISBN 3-923376-02-2
edit