editszilvasy's snail

[Paul]

Hi. I live in Hungary.
I found this snail, but I'd like to know his/her's name. Please help.
Thank you.

I think it is Pseudotrichia rubiginosa:

Info:
www.google.co.uk/search?q=Pseudotrichia%20rubiginosa

Images:
www.google.co.uk/images?q=Pseudotrichia%20rubiginosa

Attachments:

[Hannah-Bird]

Have I gone mad, or is there hair on that snail's shell?? Maybe some sort of non-hair, sensory-related fibrous material, but still! It looks like hair. ... That's weird.

[wolf]

Hi,
there´s a lot of land snails with tiny hairs on the shell surface (at least when juvenile), build by the outermost layer, the periostracum (f.e. Helicodonta, Trochulus = Trichia and so on). Most people assume that it helps in camouflage, binding small particles of soil (in combination with some extent of slime produktion) and therefore misleading possible enemies / predators. So the message is: "I´m not here, I´m just soil......".
Regards: wolf

[Paul]

Yeah, it's called the "German hairy snail"!

[fabrizio]

So you have this snails there in Germany, too? Is it widespreaded, and what habitats it thrives in?

Here on the Thyrrenian coast, lots of Xerotricha conspurcata (=collecting minute rubbish, as Wolf suggested) and Xerotricha apicina are found, even in detritic soil of roadsides; X. apicina perhaps becoming a bit commoner near the seashore.

Both have hairs as juveniles, and belong to the same family - Hygromidae - Pseudotricha belong to.

[wolf]

Hi,
si. Pseudotrichia rubiginosa lives in Germany, too, but not everywhere (f.e. Rhein and Donau areas). It seems to like damp/wet areas, especially swamps and moorland's.
Kind regards: wolf

[fabrizio]

Thank you Wolf

Local Xerotricha are adapted to a quite harsh, long-lasting dry climate and hard, clay soil (although debris upper layer is preferred).
So presence of hairs on the shells of Hygromidae (many genera of them haven't), would seem urlelated to a specific habitat, working the same way(?) in so different environments...
Kind Regards,
fabrizio

[Robert Nordsieck]

Hi there,

there is a paper I once read and also cited on my page: "Why snails have hairs" by Markus Pfenniger.

In my opinion the snail resembles more to a juvenile Helicodonta obvoluta, which, in contrary to the adults, would also have a hairy shell.


Cheese snail (Helicodonta obvoluta) with a shell full of hairs not exclusively used as a means for camouflage.
Picture: Robert Nordsieck

But it may be that I see a flat shell where it is not there, as there is no picture from the side of the shell.

Have those two pages to read:

> Hygromiidae.
> Helicodontidae.

Kind regards
Robert

[ness]

Oh those are interesting articles, I'm glad you posted that information and those links, Robert, I had wondered why some species of snails have hairy shells, I always thought it was rather odd. I would love to see one