| Discula rotula | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Mollusca |
| Class: | Gastropoda |
| Subclass: | Heterobranchia |
| Order: | Stylommatophora |
| Family: | Geomitridae |
| Genus: | Discula |
| Species: | D. rotula |
| Binomial name | |
| Discula rotula (R. T. Lowe, 1831) | |
Discula rotula is a species of air-breathing land snail, a terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusc in the family Geomitridae.
This species is endemic to the Porto Santo Island, Madeira, Portugal, where it can be found under rocks.
The shell of this snail has a discoid shape with small transversal grooves and some granules scattered along the sutures. This brownish-yellow shell is somewhat concave at its base. The oblique aperture has an oval shape. The shell is characteristic by its horizontal stripe on the last body whorl and two stripes at its base.
The aperture is an opening in certain kinds of mollusc shells: it is the main opening of the shell, where the head-foot part of the body of the animal emerges for locomotion, feeding, etc.
The operculum is a corneous or calcareous anatomical structure like a trapdoor that exists in many groups of sea snails and freshwater snails, and also in a few groups of land snails; the structure is found in some marine and freshwater gastropods, and in a minority of terrestrial gastropods, including the families Helicinidae, Cyclophoridae, Aciculidae, Maizaniidae, Pomatiidae, etc.
Sea snail is a common name for slow-moving marine gastropod molluscs, usually with visible external shells, such as whelk or abalone. They share the taxonomic class Gastropoda with slugs, which are distinguished from snails primarily by the absence of a visible shell.
The gastropod shell is part of the body of a gastropod or snail, a kind of mollusc. The shell is an exoskeleton, which protects from predators, mechanical damage, and dehydration, but also serves for muscle attachment and calcium storage. Some gastropods appear shell-less (slugs) but may have a remnant within the mantle, or in some cases the shell is reduced such that the body cannot be retracted within it (semi-slug). Some snails also possess an operculum that seals the opening of the shell, known as the aperture, which provides further protection. The study of mollusc shells is known as conchology. The biological study of gastropods, and other molluscs in general, is malacology. Shell morphology terms vary by species group.
Discula is a genus of small land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusks in the family Geomitridae.
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