Planorbis corinna

Taxobox
name = "Planorbarius corinna"


image_width =
status =
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Mollusca
classis = Gastropoda
subclassis = Orthogastropoda
superordo = Heterobranchia
ordo = Pulmonata
familia = Planorbidae
genus = "Planorbis"
species = "P. corinna"
binomial = "Planorbis corinna"
binomial_authority = Gray, 1850
synonyms =

"Planorbis corinna", is a species of minute freshwater air-breathing snail, an aquatic pulmonate gastropod mollusk, or micromollusk in the family Planorbidae, the ram's horn snails, or planorbids. All planorbids have sinistral or left-coiling shells.

"Planorbis" gastropod shells are challenging to make sense of in terms of their coiling and orientation. Most of the shells in this genus are almost planispiral in coiling, and when examining the shell, it is important to bear in mind the fact that all planorbids have sinistral shells.

To complicate matters further however:

* In life, these pond snails hold their shells upside down, with the umbilicus facing upward
* The spire of the shell is quite sunken in many species
* The umbilicus of the shell is very wide, and it in some species the umbilicus is only as deeply "dished" as the sunken spire is.

Once you understand that a planorbid shell is sinistral, you can hold the shell with the aperture on the left and facing you, then the sunken spire side of the shell will be uppermost.

To repeat: the side of the shell which is in fact the spire (a sunken spire) faces down in the living animal, contrary to what is the case in almost all other shelled gastropods.

Description

This species is endemic to New Zealand.

hell description

The shell is very minute, discoidal, with four slowly increasing whorls. The shell coloration is greenish-white to light brown. The width of the shell is up to 3.3 mm, and the height is up to 0.8 mm.

References

* Powell A W B, "New Zealand Mollusca", William Collins Publishers Ltd, Auckland, New Zealand 1979 ISBN 0-00-216906-1