Helicigona lapicida (Linnaeus 1758)

Helicigona lapicida is a species of medium-sized, air-breathing land snail, a terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusk in the family Helicidae, the typical snails. ^[1]

Subspecies

• Helicigona lapicida andorrica (Bourguignat, 1876)
• Helicigona lapicida lapicida (Linnaeus, 1758)

Anatomy

Love dart of Helicigona lapicida

This species of snail makes and uses love darts during mating.

Distribution

This species is native to Europe, especially Central Europe.

Shell description

Five views of a shell of Helicigona lapicida lapicida

Five views of a shell of Helicigona lapicida andorrica

The shell of this species is approximately 20 mm in maximum dimension. The periphery of the shell is sharply keeled. There is a wide umbilicus. The peristome around the aperture is white and strongly reflected and lipped. The shell color is grey-brown with some red brown patches.

References

• Janus, Horst, 1965. The young specialist looks at land and freshwater molluscs, Burke, London
• Kerney, M.P., Cameron, R.A.D. & Jungbluth, J-H. (1983). Die Landschnecken Nord- und Mitteleuropas. Ein Bestimmungsbuch für Biologen und Naturfreunde, 384 pp., 24 plates. [Summer or later]. Hamburg / Berlin (Paul Parey).
• Bank, R. A.; Neubert, E. (2017). Checklist of the land and freshwater Gastropoda of Europe. Last update: July 16th, 2017
• Sysoev, A. V. & Schileyko, A. A. (2009). Land snails and slugs of Russia and adjacent countries. Sofia/Moskva (Pensoft). 312 pp., 142 plates.