Mud Snails, Hydrobiidae, are very small fresh and brackish-water Gastropods found on every continent except Antartica. They are almost always less than 8 mm in height and always spiral dextrally (to the right), and for the most part lack any ornamentation, though their shape can be highly variable, from planispiral (disc shaped) to needle shaped.
In a paper published in the Turkish Journal of Zoology on 26 November 2018, Mustafa Emre Gürlek of the Vocational School of Health Services at Mehmet Akif Ersoy University, describes a new species of Mud Snail from the Sumbas suyu Spring in Osmaniye Province, Turkey.
The new species is placed in the genus Pseudamnicola , which is common and widespread around the eastern Mediterranean, and given the specific name sumbasensis, meaning 'from Sumba'. The shells of these Snails are conical, ivory in colour, with 4.5-5.0 whorls and are 1.73-2.4 mm in height and 1.23-1.69 mm in width. The soft parts are white with black eyespots and tentacles.
Pseudamnicola sumbasensis. (a) Shell of holotype (male), (b) shell of paratype (male), (c. penis in situ, (d) penis, (e) female shell, (f) frontal view of female. Abbreviations: p, penis; e, eye spot; t, tentacle; s, snout. Gürlek (2018).
See also...
Follow Sciency Thoughts on Facebook.