Achatinella pulcherrima
Encyclopedia
Achatinella pulcherrima is a species
Species
In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...

 of air-breathing land snail
Snail
Snail is a common name applied to most of the members of the molluscan class Gastropoda that have coiled shells in the adult stage. When the word is used in its most general sense, it includes sea snails, land snails and freshwater snails. The word snail without any qualifier is however more often...

, a terrestrial
Terrestrial animal
Terrestrial animals are animals that live predominantly or entirely on land , as compared with aquatic animals, which live predominantly or entirely in the water , or amphibians, which rely on a combination of aquatic and terrestrial habitats...

 pulmonate gastropod mollusk in the family Achatinellidae
Achatinellidae
Achatinellidae is a family of tropical air-breathing land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusks in the superfamily Achatinelloidea.- Taxonomy :...

. This species is endemic to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

.

Henry Augustus Pilsbry
Henry Augustus Pilsbry
Henry Augustus Pilsbry was an American biologist, malacologist and carcinologist, among other areas of study. He was a dominant presence in many fields of invertebrate taxonomy for the better part of a century...

 considered this species to be a subspecies of Achatinella byronii
Achatinella byronii
Achatinella byronii is a species of air-breathing land snail, a terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusk in the family Achatinellidae. This species is endemic to the United States.Achatinella byronii is the type species of the subgenus Bulimella....

.

Shell description

The dextral shell
Gastropod shell
The gastropod shell is a shell which is part of the body of a gastropod or snail, one kind of mollusc. The gastropod shell is an external skeleton or exoskeleton, which serves not only for muscle attachment, but also for protection from predators and from mechanical damage...

 is ovate oblong, subcylindrical and slender. Some specimens are more ventricose than other. She shell has six whorls. The color is white or yellow with none to several broad bands of chestnut. The margin of the lip is brown. The ground color is a deep and rich
chestnut, with from one to three bands of orange, yellow, fulvous or white. The marginal groove to the suture is very close and distinct in all.

The height of the shell is 20.0 mm. The width of the shell is 11.2 mm.
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