- [Turbo] cylindraceous [sic] Mendes Da Costa 1778: 89; corrected cylindraceus in errata.
Identification. Shell subcylindrical to subovate, with apex bluntly rounded. Spire tall, sides convex. Whorls c. 5–6, sides not very convex. Suture rather shallow. Protoconch smooth. Teleoconch with weak incremental lines/wrinkles. Aperture subovate. Angular denticle narrow, slightly curved, and pointed, typically connected to upper insertion of lip by a callus and continuing for c. ½ whorl inwards. Juveniles with parietal and columellar spiral lamellae, fully internal, radiating basal denticles. Lip expanded, recurved in adults. Umbilicus small, rounded. Shell subtranslucent, pale brown; lip whitish. Height to 4.1 mm (higher than wide).
Animal grey, paler on the sides and sole of foot, and with darker head and tentacles (Reeve 1863; Barker 1999). When crawling, the tail is short and not extending behind the shell (Barker 1999).
Comparison. The shells of juveniles are unique among land snails of BC in bearing lamellae within the whorls. Adults are readily recognized from Vertigo species by their larger size, unique angular denticle, and especially thick lip. Lauria cylindracea is most like Pupilla species, but it differs in the having an angular denticle, among other things.
Habitat. In some areas of BC, this species is abundant in gardens (especially unkempt ones), on waste ground, and in adjacent wooded areas. Snails live in leaf litter and under vegetation, including ivy, on dead wood, stones, and concrete debris and bricks, lumber, and other debris (Forsyth 1999, 2004).
Biology. This species is ovoviviparous and usually four embryos develop within each adult. During times of drought, the release of young may be delayed, presumably to afford protection of the young, such as from desiccation (Heller et al. 1997). During dry periods, snails use mucus to seal the aperture of their shell onto hard surfaces. This species is relatively long-lived for a small snail; in Israel, snails reached maturity in their second winter and lived for about 4–5 years (Heller et al. 1997; Arad et al. 1998). Aphally is unknown in this species, in contrast to many other species within the Orthurethra.
Geographic range. In BC, this species now occurs along southern and south-eastern Vancouver Island (north to at least Nanaimo), the Gulf Islands, and Greater Vancouver, east in the Fraser Valley to Abbotsford and Chilliwack. This species was first recorded in the late 1980s and early 1990s (Holm 1988, 1994) and was soon found at many more places around the southern Strait of Georgia region (Forsyth 1999). There is an early record from Sardis, near Chilliwack (Holm 1988). (See also Observations · iNaturalist)
Western Palaearctic: Europe and the Mediterranean region east to the Caucasus and Turkey, Israel, Ukraine including Crimea; Transcaucasia and possibly Daghestan and West Köpet Dagh (Welter-Schultes 2012; Sysoev & Schileyko 2009). Introduced to South Africa, several Atlantic islands, Reunion Island, New Zealand, and BC.
Etymology. Lauria (Latin): probably named in honour of John Edward Gray’s niece, Laura Gray (Kennard & Woodward 1926); the gender is feminine. Cylindracea (Latin): cylindrical or approaching a cylindrical form.
Remarks. The genus Lauria, when used in a broader sense, is divided into several subgenera. No subgenus is used here for L. cylindracea,as these taxa are frequently regarded by as distinct genera (e.g. Schileyko 1998), and L. cylindracea belongs to Lauria sensu stricto (it is the type species).
References
- Arad Z, Goldenberg S, Heller J (1998) Short- and long-term resistance to desiccation in a minute litter-dwelling land snail Lauria cylindracea (Pulmonata: Pupillidae). Journal of Zoology 246: 75-81. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-7998.1998.tb00134.x
- Barker GM (1999) Naturalised terrestrial Stylommatophora (Mollusca: Gastropoda). Fauna of New Zealand/Ko te Aitanga Pepeke o Aotearoa 38: 1–253. https://doi.org/10.7931/J2/fnz.38
- Forsyth RG (1999) Distributions of nine new or little-known exotic land snails in British Columbia. The Canadian Field-Naturalist 113: 559–568. https://doi.org/10.5962/p.358656
- Forsyth RG (2004b) Land Snails of British Columbia. Royal BC Museum, Victoria, BC, Canada, iv, 188 pp.
- Heller J, Sivan N, Hodgson AN (1997) Reproductive biology and population dynamics of an ovoviviparous land snail, Lauria cylindracea (Pupillidae). Journal of Zoology 243: 263-280. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-7998.1997.tb02781.x
- Holm GP (1988) Lauria cylindracea (Da Coata) [sic] a new introduced species to North America. Dredgings 28: 5, 8.
- Holm GP (1994) A second find of Lauria cylindracea. Dredgings 34: 3–5.
- Kennard AS, Woodward BB (1926) Synonymy of the British non-marine Mollusca (Recent and post-Tertiary). British Museum (Natural History), London, United Kingdom, xxiv + 447 pp. https://doi.org/10.5962/bhl.title.8325
- Mendes Da Costa E (1778) Historia naturalis testaceorum Britanniæ, or, the British conchology; containing the descriptions and other particulars of natural history of the shells of Great Britain and Ireland: illustrated with figures. In English and French. . Millan, White, Emsley & Robson, London, xii + 254 + vii + [1] p., 17 pl.
- Reeve L (1863) The land and freshwater mollusks indigenous to, or naturalized in, the British Isles. Reeve & Co., London, United Kingdom, xx, 1 map, 275 pp.
- Schileyko AA (1998) Treatise on Recent terrestrial pulmonate molluscs. Part 1: Achatinellidae, Amastridae, Orculidae, Strobilopsidae, Spelaeodiscidae, Valloniidae, Cochlicopidae, Pupillidae, Chondrinidae, Pyramidulidae. Ruthenica Supplement 2: 1–128.
- Sysoev A, Schileyko A (2009) Land snails and slugs of Russia and adjacent countries. Pensoft, Sofia, Bulgaria, 212 pp. + 142 pls.