Cecilioides acicula

Cecilioides acicula, common name the "blind snail" or "blind awlsnail", is a species of very small, air-breathing land snail, a terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusk in the family Ferussaciidae.^[2]

Cecilioides acicula
Two fresh shells of Cecilioides acicula, the scale bar is in millimeters
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Mollusca
Class:	Gastropoda
Order:	Stylommatophora
Suborder:	Achatinina
Superfamily:	Achatinoidea
Family:	Ferussaciidae
Genus:	Cecilioides
Species:	C. acicula
Binomial name
Cecilioides acicula (O. F. Müller, 1774)[1]
Synonyms
Caecilianella acicula (Müller)

This is a subterranean species.

Description

This animal is white, there are two pairs of tentacles, but eyes are lacking.^[3]

The shell is long and narrow, up to a maximum of 5.5 mm and a width of 1.2 mm.^[4] The shell is colorless, glassy and transparent when it is fresh, a somewhat opaque milky-white when it is not fresh.

Habitat

The habitat of this species is underground, quite some distance below the surface. It is more common in soils with a high level of calcium.^[4]

Because of its subterranean habitat, this species is often found only as an empty shell, in such places as mole hills, ant hills, or in flood debris of rivers.

Distribution

Distribution of this species is central European and southern European.^[5]

This species native range is Mediterranean Europe, specifically, Western Europe (Great Britain and Ireland,^[6] Netherlands,^[7] …) and Central Europe (Czech Republic - least concern (LC),^[8] Poland, Slovakia, Ukraine^[9] …).

It has also been accidentally introduced to several other countries:

• Latvia since 2006^[10]
• Bermuda since 1861^[11]
• Canada: Ontario^[12]
• The United States (in Pennsylvania and in Florida,^[13] in Maryland since 1959,^[14] in Virginia since 2006,^[15] in California, in New Jersey and in New Mexicoà^[16]
• New Zealand.^[17]
• Australia.^[18]