DESMOULIN'S WHORL SNAIL

'Desmoulin's whorl snail', ''Vertigo moulinsiana'', is a species of small snail that lives in marshes and swamps across Europe as far north as southern Sweden^[1]. Within Western Europe, only the populations in England and Ireland are considered to be viable , although further populations exist in the Czech Republic (critically endangered, occupying White Carpathians Biospehere Reserve, Kokořínsko Landscape Protected Area and Southern Moravia) ^[2][3][4], in Poland (critically endangered)^[5] and elsewhere in Europe (for example: Netherlands^[6], France^[7]). It reaches around 3 mm tall, with a yellowish or brownish translucent shell ^[8]. Desmoulin's whorl snail lives in calcareous wetlands, where there are tall sedges, saw-sedge (''Cladium mariscus''), reed-grass (''Glyceria maxima'') or the reed ''Phragmites australis'' ^[9]. It is mentioned in Annex II of the European Union's Habitats Directive ^[10].
Deutsche Post featured ''V. moulinsiana'' on a 2002 German €0.51 postage stamp as part of a series on endangered species of animals ^[11].

Contents

Status in the United Kingdom

References

External links

Status in the United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom, Desmoulin's whorl snail is listed as endangered, although it occurs in a number of areas in a band from Norfolk to Dorset, with outlying populations in Kent and the Llŷn Peninsula in North Wales  and has probably been under-reported in the past. Its presence on the site of the planned Newbury bypass caused the building of that road to be postponed; the building works were able to go ahead once the snails had been moved to a new habitat nearby. It is reported to have since died out at the new site ^[12][13], but the same report states "Desmoulin's whorl snail is now considered less scarce than it was 10 years ago".

References

1. SAC selection species account: Desmoulin's whorl snail
2. Evropsky významné lokality v České republice
3. Red List of the molluscs (Mollusca) of the Czech Republic
4. New records of ''Vertigo moulinsiana'' (Gastropoda: Vertiginidae) and notes on its distribution and habitats in the Czech Republic, L. Beran, , , Malacologica Bohemoslovaca, 2006
5. ''Vertigo moulinsiana'' (Dupuy, 1849) Beata M. Pokryszko
6. ''Vertigo moulinsiana''
7. Recherche de sites par espèce : Invertébrés : ''Vertigo moulinsiana'' (''Vertigo moulinsiana'')
8. ''Vertigo moulinsiana''
9. UK Biodiversity Action Plan: Desmoulin's whorl snail
10. Council Directive 92/43/EEC of 21 May 1992 on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora, , , , Official Journal of the European Union,
11. Bauchige Windelschnecke Andreas Bartl
12. Concern for Newbury bypass snail
13. End of the road for protected snail Matt Weaver

External links

★ photo of ''Vertigo moulinsiana''

★ http://www.staff.amu.edu.pl/~polmal/smp/v64.htm

★ [1]