Utah roundmouth snail Temporal range: | |
---|---|
![]() | |
Drawing of apertural view of the shell of Valvata utahensis | |
Scientific classification ![]() | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Mollusca |
Class: | Gastropoda |
Subclass: | Heterobranchia |
Family: | Valvatidae |
Genus: | Valvata |
Species: | V. utahensis |
Binomial name | |
Valvata utahensis | |
Synonyms | |
Valvata sincera var. utahensis Call, 1884 |
The Utah roundmouth snail, also known as the Utah valvata or desert valvata, [3] scientific name Valvata utahensis, is a species of freshwater snail with a gill and an operculum, an aquatic gastropod mollusc in the family Valvatidae, the valve snails.
This species of snail is endemic to the United States. The common name refers to the State of Utah.
This species was first described as Valvata sincera var. utahensis by Richard Ellsworth Call (1856-1917, U.S.A.) in 1884 from specimens collected at Utah Lake, Utah (the type locality). [2]
R. E. Call elevated Valvata utahensis to species level in 1886 [4] and this was confirmed also in revision of the genus by Bryant Walker (1856-1936, U.S.A.) in 1902. [5]
There was established a subspecies Valvata utahensis horatii Baily & Baily, 1951 [6] from pleistocene, but Taylor (1966) [7] stated, that Valvata utahensis horatii should be a synonym for Valvata utahensis.
The shell of the Utah valvata snail is 4.5 mm high, and 4.5 mm width. [5] The average size of adult Utah valvata snails is 4.32 mm. [8]
The shell is turbinate in shape, thin, translucent and shining. It is a yellowish horn color at the apex, white or greenish white below the apex. The shell has four whorls which are convex, regularly increasing, minutely striate, the uppermost shouldered, with a single, well-marked carina which becomes obsolete on the body whorl. [5] Turbinate shell form and an incipient carina (keel-shaped ridge) on the dorsal surface of the shell distinguishes Valvata utahensis from the morphologically similar Valvata humeralis . [8]
The spire of the shell is obtusely elevated, and the apex is depressed. The suture is well impressed. The aperture of the shell is circular and slightly angled posteriorly. The lip of the aperture is simple, nearly continuous, and it is appressed to the body whorl. [5]
The umbilicus is small and round; it is defined by a more or less obvious angle around the base of the shell. [5]
The color of the operculum is light horn. The operculum is corneus, spirally multivolute, slightly produced posteriorly to conform to the shape of the aperture. [4]
![]() | ![]() | ![]() |
The Utah valvata snail, or at least its closely related ancestors, has been described as ranging widely across the western United States and Canada as far back as the Jurassic Period, 199.6 ± 0.6 to 145.5 ± 4 million years ago. [8]
Fossils of the Utah valvata snail are known from Utah to California. The Utah valvata snail was likely present in the ancestral Snake River as it flowed south from Idaho, through Nevada, and into northeastern California. The Snake River escaped to join the Columbia River Basin approximately 2 million years ago. [8]
Historically, Valvata utahensis occurred in Utah Lake of Utah and in the Snake River of southern Idaho. [9]
This snail is endemic to the Pliocene of the Lake Idaho region. [10]
The modern range of the snail extended as far downstream as Grandview (rkm 783, rm 487). [9] However, recent mollusc surveys throughout Utah revealed no live snails, and the species is believed to be extirpated there. [11]
At present, this species occurs in a few springs and mainstem Snake River sites in the Hagerman Valley (rkm 932, rm 579). Additional locations include a few sites immediately upstream and downstream of the Minidoka Dam (rkm 1,086, rm 675), near the Eagle Rock dam site (rkm 1,142, rm 709) and below the American Falls Dam downstream to Burley. [9]
Recent surveys at The Nature Conservancy’s "Thousand Springs Preserve" revealed declines in numbers and range of the Utah valvata over a four-year period. [12] In 1991, colonies of this snail persisted in only two areas at the Thousand Springs Preserve, with a population estimate for each colony at or below 6,000 individuals. The population density varied, but it averaged six individuals per meter2 (2.69 ft2). [13]
For new localities see Federal Register, July 16, 2009.
The Utah valvata snail persists in a variety of aquatic habitats, including cold-water springs, spring creeks and tributaries, the mainstem Snake River and associated tributary stream habitats, and reservoirs. [8]
It was thought that the snail is specialized on well-oxygenated areas of limestone, mud, or mud-sand substrate, among stream beds with submergent aquatic vegetation. It was thought to be absent from pure gravel-boulder substrate. Chara , a rooted aquatic plant that concentrates both calcium carbonate (CaCO3) and silicon dioxide (SiO2), is a common associate of Valvata utahensis. [13] However the species occurs on a variety of substrate types including both fine sediments and more coarse substrates in areas both with and without macrophytes. [8]
The species has been collected at a wide range of depths, ranging from less than 1 m to depths greater than 14 m, and at temperatures between 4 and 24 °C (39 and 75 °F). [8]
Recent work conducted by the Idaho Department of Fish and Game (IDFG) in the upper Snake River demonstrated that Utah valvata snail presence was positively correlated with water depth up to 5.5 m (up to 18.37 feet) and temperature up to 17.2 °C (up to 63 °F), and Utah valvata snail density was positively correlated with macrophyte (a water plant large enough to be observed with the unaided eye) coverage, water depth, and temperature. [8]
Similarly, Hinson (2006) analyzed available data from several studies conducted by the USBR (2001-2004), Idaho Power Company (IPC) (1995-2002), IDFG, Idaho Transportation Department (2003-2004) and others, and demonstrated a positive relationship between Utah valvata snail presence and macrophytes, depth, and fine substrates. One study reported Utah valvata snails in organically enriched fine sediments with a heavy macrophyte community, downstream of an aquaculture facility (rm 588). [8]
Survey data and information reported since the time of listing demonstrate that the Utah valvata snail is able to live in reservoirs, which were previously thought to be unsuitable for the species. [12] [8]
Valvata utahensis is primarily a detritivore, grazing along the mud surface ingesting diatoms or small plant debris. In habitats with boulders on mud, the snail has been observed grazing diatoms and other periphyton (sessile organisms that live attached to rocky surfaces) and aquatic plants. [13]
Utah roundmouth snail is a hermaphroditic snail. [14]
The Utah valvata snail is univoltine (produces one group of eggs per year) with a lifespan of about 1 year. Reproduction and spawning occur asynchronously between March and October, depending on habitat, with the majority of young spawned between August and October. [8]
Emergence of a new cohort follows approximately 2 weeks after oviposition, and senescent snails (i.e., those approximately 374 days old) die shortly after reproduction. [8] [15]
The Utah valvata snail has been observed to produce egg masses which contained 3 to 12 developing snails. [15] Egg masses are approximately 1.0 to 1.5 mm in diameter, and young snails are approximately 0.7 mm in size upon emergence. [8] [15]
The occurrence of trematode parasites in the Utah valvata has not been studied. [8]
Predators of the Utah valvata snail have not been documented; however, it is assumed that some predation by native and non-native species occurs. [8]
This species was listed as endangered on the United States Fish and Wildlife Service list of endangered species on December 14, 1992. [13]
On July 17, 2009, the Fish and Wildlife Service published a proposal in the Federal Register to remove the species from the list of endangered species stating that the Service now knows that the Utah valvata snail is not limited to areas of cold-water springs or spring outflows; rather, it persists in a variety of aquatic habitats, including cold-water springs, spring creeks and tributaries, the mainstream Snake River and associated tributary stream habitats, and reservoirs influenced by dam operations. [8] The snail was delisted in 2010. [16]
Valvata utahensis is listed as Vulnerable species in the 2011 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species . [1]
The snail darter is a small species of freshwater ray-finned fish, a darter from the subfamily Etheostomatinae, part of the family Percidae, which also contains the perches, ruffes and pikeperches. It is found in East Tennessee freshwater in the United States and in small portions of northern Alabama and Georgia. First recorded in 1973, the snail darter was listed as endangered under the U.S. Endangered Species Act of 1973 by 1975. The species was at the center of a major environmental law controversy that involved a lawsuit seeking to halt the completion of Tellico Dam, which posed a risk of extinction for the snail darter by blocking its migratory route. The case was eventually appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled on it in its 1978 decision Tennessee Valley Authority v. Hill.
The New Zealand mud snail is a species of very small freshwater snail with a gill and an operculum. This aquatic gastropod mollusk is in the family Tateidae.
The amber darter is a small, endangered species of freshwater ray-finned fish, a darter from the subfamily Etheostomatinae, part of the family Percidae, which also contains the perches, ruffes and pikeperches. It is native to the Conasauga River and Etowah River in Georgia and Tennessee in the United States. It typically inhabits riffle areas over gravel and sand bottoms, hiding in aquatic vegetation when present. It feeds on small invertebrates and probably breeds between late fall and early spring. It is an uncommon fish with a small range and the International Union for Conservation of Nature has classified its conservation status as being "endangered".
The Kanab ambersnail, formerly classified as Oxyloma haydeni kanabense or Oxyloma kanabense, is a small, air-breathing land snail belonging to the family Succineidae, the ambersnails. This terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusc was previously considered a critically endangered subspecies or species. In 2013, a scientific investigations report by the United States Geological Survey concluded that the Kanab ambersnail is not a genetically distinct species. In June 2021, the Fish and Wildlife Service removed the Kanab ambersnail from the United States Fish and Wildlife Service list of endangered mammals and birds and classified it with other common ambersnails within the same taxa, officially negating its status as a distinct subspecies.
The bonytail chub or bonytail is a cyprinid freshwater fish native to the Colorado River basin of Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming in the southwestern United States; it has been extirpated from the part of the basin in Mexico. It was once abundant and widespread in the basin, its numbers and range have declined to the point where it has been listed as endangered since 1980 (ESA) and 1986 (IUCN), a fate shared by the other large Colorado basin endemic fish species like the Colorado pikeminnow, humpback chub, and razorback sucker. It is now the rarest of the endemic big-river fishes of the Colorado River. There are 20 species in the genus Gila, seven of which are found in Arizona.
The least chub is a species of ray-finned fish in the family Cyprinidae, the only member of the genus Iotichthys.
The lacy elimia, also known as the lacey elimia, scientific name Elimia crenatella, is a species of freshwater snail with a gill and an operculum, an aquatic gastropod mollusk in the family Pleuroceridae.
Leptoxis ampla, common name the round rocksnail, is a species of freshwater snail with a gill and an operculum, an aquatic gastropod mollusc in the family Pleuroceridae.
The plicate rocksnail, scientific name Leptoxis plicata, is a species of freshwater snail with a gill and an operculum, an aquatic gastropod mollusk in the family Pleuroceridae.
The painted rocksnail is a species of freshwater snail with a gill and an operculum, an aquatic gastropod mollusc in the family Pleuroceridae.
Lioplax cyclostomatiformis, the cylindrical lioplax, is a species of freshwater snail with gills and an operculum, an aquatic gastropod mollusk in the family Viviparidae.
The Snake River physa snail, scientific name Physella natricina, is a species of freshwater snail, an aquatic gastropod mollusk in the family Physidae. This species is endemic to Idaho in the United States.
The Bruneau hot springsnail, scientific name Pyrgulopsis bruneauensis, is a species of very small freshwater snail that has a gill and an operculum, an aquatic gastropod mollusk in the family Hydrobiidae. This species is endemic to the United States, Bruneau River in Idaho. Its natural habitat is thermal springs. It is threatened by habitat loss.
Ladislavella utahensis, common name the thickshell pondsnail, is a species of air-breathing freshwater snail, an aquatic pulmonate gastropod mollusc in the family Lymnaeidae, the pond snails. This species is endemic to Utah Lake in the United States. The last living snails were found in the early 1930s.
Valvata piscinalis, common name the European stream valvata or European valve snail, is a species of minute freshwater snail with gills and an operculum, an aquatic gastropod mollusk in the family Valvatidae, the valve snails. It is also known as Cincinna piscinalis.
Gillia altilis, common name the Buffalo pebblesnail, is a species of freshwater snail, an aquatic gastropod mollusk with an operculum in the family Lithoglyphidae.
The Socorro springsnail, scientific name Pyrgulopsis neomexicana, is an endangered species of minute freshwater snail with a gill and an operculum, an aquatic gastropod mollusk or micromollusk in the family Hydrobiidae, the mud snails.
Minidoka National Wildlife Refuge is located on the Snake River Plain in south-central Idaho, 12 miles (19 km) northeast of Rupert. It includes about 80 miles (130 km) of shoreline around Lake Walcott, from Minidoka Dam upstream about 25 miles (40 km).
Idaholanx fresti, the Banbury Springs limpet or Banbury Springs lanx, is a rare species of freshwater snail, an aquatic gastropod mollusc in the family Lymnaeidae. It is the only species in the genus Idaholanx. First discovered in 1988, the species was formally described and named in 2017.
This article incorporates public domain text from references [4] [5] and a public domain work of the United States Government from references [8] [13]