Menetus dilatatus explained

Menetus dilatatus is a species of small air-breathing freshwater snail, an aquatic pulmonate gastropod mollusk in the family Planorbidae, the ram's horn snails.

Shell description

The shell is small, of a yellowish green-color, minutely wrinkled by the lines of growth. The spire is flat, composed of 2.5-3 whorls, separated by a well-defined suture. The outer whorl has a sharp margin on a level with the spire, diminishing near, but still modifying, the aperture. Below this line the whorl is very convexly rounded so as to encircle a small, deep, abruptly formed umbilicus. This whorl rapidly enlarges, and terminates in a very large, not very oblique aperture, with the lip expanded so as to make it trumpet-shaped.

The width of the shell is 2–3 mm. The height of the shell is 0.9 mm.^[1]

Distribution

The species is native to North America. The type locality is Nantucket island and Hingham, Massachusetts, USA.

Its non-native distribution includes:

Czech Republic - non-indigenous, in Bohemia around Elber river^[2] and in Southern Bohemia^[3] ^[4]
Germany
Netherlands
Poland
Great Britain

Habitat

This snail lives in freshwater biotopes.

References

This article incorporates public domain text from the reference.

External links

Goodchild C. G. & Fried B. (1963). "Experimental Infection of the Planorbid Snail Menetus dilatatus buchanensis (Lea) with Spirorchis sp. (Trematoda)". The Journal of Parasitology 49(4): 588-592. JSTOR.
http://spinner.cofc.edu/~fwgna/species/planorbidae/m_dilatatus.html

Notes and References

Glöer P. (2002). Die Süßwassergastropoden Nord- und Mitteleuropas. Die Tierwelt Deutschlands, ConchBooks, Hackenheim, 326 pp.,, page 190-194.
Beran L. (1994). "Severoamerický okružák Menetus dilatatus (Gould) v České republice. The found of North American species Menetus dilatatus (Gould) in the Czech Republic (Mollusca: Gastropoda)". Práce muzea v Kolíně, řada přírodovědná 1: 31-32.
Beran. Luboš. 2003-07-10. Nález severoamerického druhu Menetus dilatatus (Mollusca: Gastropoda) v jižních Čechách (Česká republika) [Record of Menetus dilatatus (Mollusca: Gastropoda) in the Southern Bohemia (Czech Republic)]]. Malacologica Bohemoslovaca. Czech. 2. 1–2. 10.5817/MaB2003-2-1. 1336-6939. free.
Beran. Luboš. 2005-10-05. Menetus dilatatus (Gould, 1841) (Gastropoda: Planorbidae) in the Lipno Reservoir (Southern Bohemia, Czech Republic). Malacologica Bohemoslovaca. English. 4. 17–20. 10.5817/MaB2005-4-17. 1336-6939. free.