Partula turgida

Partula turgida

Partula turgida is an extinct species of snail from the genus Partula. She was endemic to Raiatea in the Society Islands.

Description

Partula turgida reached a length of 17 mm and a case diameter of 11.6 mm. The length of the estuary was 11.5 mm. The grooved housing was short, not perforated, ovoid, very thin, fragile and horny. The staining was weak light brown and slightly transparent. The shiny surface was marked with growth lines and fine narrow spiral strips. The spindle was very short and conical. The seam was marked with a fine white line. There were 4.5 curved turns, the latest of which was very large and evenly swollen. The mouth was oblique, ovate in outline, and took two-thirds of the body length. The aperture rim ( peristome ) was slightly extended. The spindle rim was widened and flattened above.

Extinction

Already at the beginning of the 20th century was Partula turgida rare. In the 1960s, large land snails ( Achatina fulica ) were brought to the enrichment of the food supply to Raiatea, but which proved to be plague quickly and the Polynesian land snail repressed. To combat the giant African land snails are led, originally from Florida Rosy Wolf Snail ( Euglandina rosea) a to the Society Islands. The Partula snails were easier to capture than the giant African land snails and so 49 Partula species were formerly of 61 eradicated. In 1987, the Zoological Society of London, a conservation breeding program for the Partula snails of the Society Islands to life in the 1990 surviving copies of Partula turgida were brought to the London Zoo. 1993 succeeded the population to 400 individuals to increase, most of which were reintroduced in a fenced reserve on the island of Moorea in 1994. 1995 could Rosy Wolf snail penetrate into the reserve and killed all Partula snails. The remaining copies went to the London Zoo and after a due to a disease caused by the parasite Steinhausia infectious disease. The death of the last copy was found on 1 January 1996 at 17.30 clock.