Photo of the day (7): Monacha cartusiana

Monacha cartusiana is hygromiid land snail of Atlantic-Mediterranean origin. It lives for example also in the southern England and in France. Is is considered as non-indigenous in (some parts of) the Central Europe, where it has isolated localities. It appears that it is spreading northward.

Monacha cartusiana can be easily recognized according to the reddish margin of the lip and white lip. The shell is yellowish.

 

These photos are from Olomouc, Moravia, the Czech Republic.

It is usually sitting on vegetation like this:

Juvenile specimen:

Mapping project on BioLib.cz also includes Monacha cartusiana.

 

There are about 80 species in the genus. Up to 2011 there have been found only this one Monacha species in the Czech Republic. Another species Monacha cantiana has been recently found in Bohemia, the Czech Republic in 2009. We will see, if it will be also spreading, but its spreading is expected.

 

References:

 

Míkovcová A. & Juřičková L. (2008). “Hledá se tmavoretka bělavá. [The helicid snail wanted]”. Živa 2: 73.
http://ziva.avcr.cz/?c=1336 (Czech abstract), http://ziva.avcr.cz/?c=1336&lng=en (English abstract)

 

Pech P. & Pechová H. (2009). “Monacha cartusiana (Gastropoda: Hygromiidae) in South Bohemia”. Malacologica Bohemoslovaca <http://mollusca.sav.sk> 8: 28. http://mollusca.sav.sk/pdf/8/8.Pech.pdf

 

Novák J. & Novák M. (2009). “Dvě nové lokality tmavoretky bělavé Monacha cartusiana (O.F. Müller, 1774) na Moravě”. Malacologica Bohemoslovaca 8: 29-30. http://mollusca.sav.sk/pdf/8/8.Novak.pdf

 

Horsák M., Juřičková L., Beran L., Čejka T. & Dvořák L. (2010). “Komentovaný seznam měkkýšů zjištěných ve volné přírodě České a Slovenské republiky. [Annotated list of mollusc species recorded outdoors in the Czech and Slovak Republics]. Malacologica Bohemoslovaca, Suppl. 1: 1-37. http://mollusca.sav.sk/pdf/9/Suppl-1-v2.pdf

 

Hlaváč J. Č. & Peltanová A. (2010). “First occurrence of the Kentish Snail Monacha cantiana (Mollusca: Gastropoda: Hygromiidae) in the Czech Republic”. Malacologica Bohemoslovaca 9: 11-15.
http://mollusca.sav.sk/pdf/9/9.Hlavac-Peltanova.pdf

 

Peltanová A. & Novák J. (2011). “Map of distribution of Monacha cartusiana in the Czech Republic”. In: Zicha O. (ed.) Biological Library – BioLib. Retrieved on 2011-08-18. Available on: <http://www.biolib.cz/en/taxonmap/id191/>