Painted rocksnail
| Painted rocksnail | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Drawing of the shell of Leptoxis taeniata | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Mollusca |
| Class: | Gastropoda |
| (unranked): |
clade Caenogastropoda clade Sorbeoconcha |
| Superfamily: | Cerithioidea |
| Family: | Pleuroceridae |
| Genus: | Leptoxis |
| Species: | L. taeniata |
| Binomial name | |
|
Leptoxis taeniata Conrad, 1834 |
|
clade Sorbeoconcha
The painted rocksnail, scientific name Leptoxis taeniata, is a species of freshwater snail with a gill and an operculum, an aquatic gastropod mollusk in the family Pleuroceridae.
This species is endemic to the United States, specifically the state of Alabama. The snail has been listed as threatened on the United States Fish and Wildlife Service list of endangered species since October 28, 1998.
The painted rocksnail is a small to medium-sized pleurocerid snail with a shell that measures about 19 mm (0.8 in) in length, and is subglobose to oval in shape. The aperture is broadly ovate, and rounded anteriorly. The shell coloration varies from yellowish to olive-brown, usually with four dark bands. Some shells do not have these dark bands, and some have the bands broken into square or oblong patches (see Goodrich, 1922 for a detailed description).
All of the rocksnails that historically inhabited the Mobile Basin had broadly rounded apertures, oval shaped shells, and variable coloration. Although the various species were distinguished by relative sizes, coloration patterns, and ornamentation, identification could be confusing. The painted rocksnail is the only known survivor of the 15 rocksnail species that historically occurred in the Coosa River drainage.
The painted rocksnail had the largest range of any rocksnail in the Mobile River Basin. It was historically known from the Coosa River and tributaries from the northeastern corner of St. Clair County, Alabama, downstream into the mainstem of the Alabama River to Claiborne, Monroe County, Alabama, and the Cahaba River below the Fall Line in Perry and Dallas counties, Alabama.
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