Placostylus ambagiosus watti

Taxobox
name = "Placostylus ambagiosus watti"


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status = CR
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Mollusca
classis = Gastropoda
ordo = Pulmonata
familia = Bulimulidae
genus = "Placostylus"
species = "P. ambagiosus"
subspecies = "P. ambagiosus watti"
trinomial = "Placostylus ambagiosus watti"
trinomial_authority = Powell, 1947

"Placostylus ambagiosus watti" is a subspecies of very large, air-breathing land snail, a terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusc in the family Bulimulidae, the bulimulus snails and their allies.

This subspecies is critically endangered.

Distribution

This land snail is endemic to the North Cape area in Northland in the North Island of New Zealand. It is found between Waikuku Beach and North Cape.

Habitat

This snail lives under cover of coastal forest on cliff faces.

hell description

The shell is of lighter build than "Placostylus ambagiosus whareana", and only the two outer-lip processes and the basal-lip tubercle are well developed, but never so strongly as in the "whareana" subspecies. Distinctive features of "watti" are an obscurely malleated or indistinctly spirally ridged surface, and a very dark chocolate-brown periostracum. The shell height is up to 86 mm, and the width is up to 39 mm.

Conservatiopn status

"Placostylus ambagiosus watti" is classified by the New Zealand Department of Conservation as being "Nationally Critical".

References

* Powell A. W. B., "New Zealand Mollusca", William Collins Publishers Ltd, Auckland, New Zealand 1979 ISBN 0-00-216906-1
* [http://www.doc.govt.nz/templates/MultipageDocumentPage.aspx?id=39593 New Zealand Department of Conservation Threatened Species Classification]