Helix nucula

Helix nucula is a species of air-breathing land snail, a terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusk in the family Helicidae, the typical snails. It has a rounded shell with white aperture margins; it differs from the similar Helix figulina by fine spiral grooves on the upper shell surface.^[3] Previously, the name H. nucula was used also for Helix pronuba, an unrelated species occurring in North Africa and on Crete, creating some confusion in the literature.^[4]

Helix nucula
Conservation status
Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Mollusca
Class:	Gastropoda
Order:	Stylommatophora
Family:	Helicidae
Genus:	Helix
Species:	H. nucula
Binomial name
Helix nucula Mousson, 1854[2]

Distribution

This land snail inhabits areas near the south and west coasts of Turkey as well as eastern Aegean Islands of Greece.^[5] However, its native range is probably mainly Lebanon, Syria and Cyprus.^[6]

Taxonomy

Helix pachya from Lebanon and Syria is not a distinct lineage in the analysed mitochondrial data, and is probably synonymous with H. nucula.^[6]

References

1. Neubert, E.; Triantis, K. (2011). "Helix nucula". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2011: e.T156873A5010470. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2011-1.RLTS.T156873A5010470.en. Retrieved 18 November 2021.
2. Mousson A. (1854). "Coquilles terrestres et fluviatiles, recueillies par M. le Prof. Bellardi dans un voyage en Orient". Mittheilungen der Naturforschenden Gesellschaft in Zürich 3(8): 362-402, page 367.
3. Neubert, Eike (2014). "Revision of Helix Linnaeus, 1758 in its eastern Mediterranean distribution area, and reassignment of Helix godetiana Kobelt, 1878 to Maltzanella Hesse, 1917 (Gastropoda, Pulmonata, Helicidae)". Contributions to Natural History. 26: 1–200.
4. Neubert, Eike; Korábek, Ondřej (2015-10-10). "Comment on Psonis et al. (2015): 'Evaluation of the taxonomy of Helix cincta (Muller, 1774) and Helix nucula (Mousson, 1854); insights using mitochondrial DNA sequence data'". Journal of Natural History. 49 (37–38): 2257–2263. doi:10.1080/00222933.2015.1021874. ISSN 0022-2933. S2CID 83630476.
5. IUCN Red List, Distribution map of Helix nucula.
6. Korábek, Ondřej; Juřičková, Lucie; Petrusek, Adam (2022). "Diversity of Land Snail Tribe Helicini (Gastropoda: Stylommatophora: Helicidae): Where Do We Stand after 20 Years of Sequencing Mitochondrial Markers?". Diversity. 14 (1): 24. doi:10.3390/d14010024. ISSN 1424-2818.