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Wednesday 12 August 2015

Theodoxus anatolicus (Recluz 1844) - Cyprus

Theodoxus anatolicus is a species of a freshwater snail with an operculum, an aquatic gastropod mollusk in the family Neritidae, the nerites. 

Distribution
This species occurs in:
Turkey
Cyprus
Theodoxus is a genus of nerites, small water snails with an operculum, some of which live in freshwater, and some in both freshwater and brackish water, aquatic gastropod mollusks in the family Neritidae, the nerites.
The shell in this genus is semiovular with a flat apertural plain. There is no umbilicus. The columella and inner whorls are dissolved.
Species in the genus Theodoxus are highly variable in size, in color pattern of the periostracum, in details of the operculum and in theradula, and all these factors can make identification to species level very challenging
These animals are live on stones, and often also under stones, in up to 5-6 m depth or deeper, feeding on algal covers. Theodoxus needs rough surfaces in order to be able to digest its food, so a stony substrate is necessary. Green algae are not consumed;Theodoxus has no cellulases. These snails lay egg capsules containing 30-70 eggs each, usually on the shells of other Theodoxusanimals; only one juvenile grows, the other eggs serve as food
There were no systematic review of the genus Theodoxus as of 2007. Bunje (2004) noted at least 34 extant taxa at species level in the genus TheodoxusIUCN Red List (2015) provided conservation status for 23 species of Theodoxus.  From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Photos Lutra Afroditis by George Konstantinou


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