Acanthinula aculeata

Prickly spreading screw ( Acanthinula aculeata, OF Müller, 1774)

The Prickly spreading screw ( Acanthinula aculeata ), also just murex is a terrestrial snail from the family of grass worm ( Valloniidae ); The family belongs to the order of terrestrial snails ( gastropod ).

Features

The housing is spherical with niedrigkegeligem Apex. It measures about 2 x 2 mm and has four whorls. The turns are well rounded, and the umbilicus is narrow and deep. The surface is covered with sharp little fins inclined to the axis of coiling, which end in some flexible spines. Ribs and spines are outgrowths of the organic periostracum and therefore can only be seen on fresh specimens. In weathered specimens the sharp ridges and spines absent; the ribs approaches are still to be seen. Often the surface is glued to camouflage with faecal pellets. The mouth is round to oval and the aperture rim is slightly thickened.

Occurrence, lifestyle and dissemination

The Prickly stray snail lives in forests, bushes and hedgerows under leaf litter, rarely also in open habitats or at the foot of limestone under stones. The species is widespread throughout Europe to central Russia. In the north, the range extends to northern Scandinavia, in the south to North Africa.

System

Jungbluth and Knorre (2008 ) recommend the use of the German trivial name for this species murex This name is chosen to be very unhappy, because there is also a living family in the sea whelks ( Muricidae ). Therefore, this proposal is not followed here and in German literature also widely used common name Prickly spreading screw. Acanthinula aculeata is the type species of the genus Acanthinula Beck, 1847.