- Helix lubrica O.F. Müller 1774: 104.
- Many synonyms or suspected synonyms.
Identification. Shell ovate-fusiform. Spire elongate, with sides slightly convex. Apex bluntly rounded. Whorls not very convex. Periphery rounded, medial. Suture shallowly indented, with false suture below. Aperture subovate, H > W, with angle above, edentulous. Adult lip thickened within by an opaque, pale pinkish or whitish callus ridge. Umbilicus absent. Protoconch smooth. Teleoconch sculpture almost smooth, with faint incremental lines only. Shell translucent, very glossy, yellowish or reddish brown. Height to 6.5 mm (higher than wide).
Animal grey, but head and tentacles darker grey or almost black.
Comparison. This is the perhaps the only Cochlicopa species in BC (but see Remarks) and, therefore, is unlikely to be confused with any other species of land snail. The spindle-shaped, very glossy shell is unique among land-snail species in the province. However, Cochlicopa species are conchologically quite similar.
Habitat. This species is most often found in disturbed habitats, such as in gardens, on waste ground, in pastures, and on roadsides; however, it does also occur in natural environments, including in BC, in forest openings, forest, and dunes; elsewhere it occurs in alvars, and arctic tundra. Snails are gregarious and live under debris, garbage, woody debris, concrete, and other debris, or in leaf litter. Occasionally, large numbers of snails have been seen amassing, such as one noted by the hundreds on an abandoned concrete building foundation at Okanagan Centre (Pilsbry 1946).
Geographic range. In BC, widespread over all the province but particularly common in the south. In Canada, known from every province and territory except for Nunavut.
Biology. Self-fertilization is the main breeding system in Cochlicopa (Armbruster & Schlegel 1994).
Etymology. Cochlicopa: derived from kochlias (Greek), a snail shell + kopto (Greek), to cut; the gender is feminine. Lubrica (Latin), slippery.
Remarks. Pilsbry (1948) recognized a subspecies, Cionella lubrica morseana Doherty, 1878, which is now generally considered a separate species following Hubricht (1985) and others. No subspecies are currently recognized.
Occasionally, among the many specimens from BC, there are smaller and more slender than “normal” C. lubrica and have the appearance of C. lubricella (Porro, 1838). Whether such shells represent a species other than C. lubrica is unknown. Pilsbry (1948) did not recognize C. lubricella in North America, and Hubricht (1985) was among the first to use this name for North American snails. However, in Europe shells classified as C. lubricella by their shape and size belong to two paraphyletic taxa which are genetically distinct (Armbruster 1997), but one of these conchologically lubricella-like taxa is genetically indistinguishable from C. lubrica. Although Giusti and Manganelli (1992) discussed the limitations of identifying Cochlicopa species by morphological means, and molecular evidence points to the inability to discern biological species by their shell morphology (Armbruster 1997), most authors continue to use morphological differences in shells to distinguish putative species of Cochlicopa (e.g. Welter-Schultes 2012). Genetic studies of North American Cochlicopa are needed.
One can speculate that some BC populations of Cochlicopa represent introductions, while others are native, but this is purely conjecture.
Pilsbry (1948) and most other American authors have used Cionella Jeffreys, 1829 as the genus for this species, but both Gittenberger (1983) and Roth (2003) have concluded that Cochlicopa A. Férussac, 1819 is correct.
References
- Armbruster G (1997) Evaluations of RAPD markers and allozyme patterns: Evidence for morphological convergence in the morphotype of Cochlicopa lubricella (Gastropoda: Pulmonata: Cochlicopidae). Journal of Molluscan Studies 63: 379–388.
- Armbruster G, Schlegel M (1994) The land-snail species of Cochlicopa (Gastropoda: Pulmonata: Cochlicopidae): presentation of taxon-specific allozyme patterns, and evidence for a high level of selffertilization. Journal of Zoological Systematics and Evolutionary Research 32: 282–296.
- Gittenberger E (1983) On Iberian Cochlicopidae and the genus Cryptazeca (Gastropoda, Pulmonata). Zoologische Mededelingen 57: 301–320.
- Giusti F, Manganelli G (1992) The problem of the species in malacology after clear evidence of the limits of morphological systematics. In: Gittenberger E, Goud J (Eds) Proceedings of the Ninth International Malacological Congress, Edinburgh, 31 August – 6 September 1986. Unitas Malacologica, Leiden, 153–172.
- Hubricht L (1985) The distributions of the native land mollusks of the eastern United States. Fieldiana, Zoology (New Series) 24: i–viii, 1–191. https://doi.org/10.5962/bhl.title.3329
- Müller OF (1774) Vermium terrestrivm et fluviatilium, seu animalium infusorium, helminthicorum, et testaceorum, non marinorum, succincta historia. Volumen alterum: testacea. Heineck & Faber, Havniæ & Lipsiæ, xxxvi + 214 + [x] pp. https://doi.org/10.5962/bhl.title.46299
- Pilsbry HA (1946) A roundup of Cochlicopa lubrica. The Nautilus 60: 72.
- Pilsbry HA (1948) Land Mollusca of North America (north of Mexico), 2(2). The Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, Monographs 3: i–xlvii + 521–1113 pp.
- Roth B (2003) Cochlicopa Férussac, 1821, not Cionella Jeffreys, 1829; Cionellidae Clessin, 1879, not Cochlicopidae Pilsbry, 1900 (Gastropoda: Pulmonata: Stylommatophora). The Veliger 46: 183–185.
- Welter-Schultes F (2012) European Non-marine Molluscs, a Guide for Species Identification. Bestimmungsbuch für europäische Land- und Süsswassermollusken. Planet Poster Editions, Göttingen, [3] + 679 + [78] pp.