Cecilioides acicula, common name

Common name

A common name of a taxon or organism is a name in general use within a community; it is often contrasted with the scientific name for the same organism...

 the "blind snail" or "blind awlsnail", 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 very small, air-breathing land snail

Land snail

A land snail is any of the many species of snail that live on land, as opposed to those that live in salt water and fresh water. Land snails are terrestrial gastropod mollusks that have shells, It is not always an easy matter to say which species are terrestrial, because some are more or less...

, a pulmonate gastropod mollusk in the family Ferussaciidae

Ferussaciidae

Ferussaciidae is a family of air-breathing land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusks in the superfamily Achatinoidea.This family has no subfamilies...

.

This is a subterranean species.

Description

This animal has no eyes. The 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 long and narrow, up to a maximum of 5.5 mm and a width of 1.2 mm. 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

Soil zoology

Soil zoology is the study of animals living fully or partially in the soil . The term was apparently first used for a conference of soil zoologists presenting their research at the University of Nottingham, UK, in 1955.-Bibliography:...

 with a high level of calcium.

Because of its subterranean habitat, this species is often found only as an empty shell, in such places as mole hills, ant hill

Ant Hill

Ant Hill is a hill, high, rising steeply on the west side of the Skelton Glacier between Ant Hill Glacier and Dilemma Glacier. It was surveyed and named in 1957 by the New Zealand party of the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition, 1956–58. So named by geological members because of the...

s, or in flood debris of rivers.

Distribution

Distribution of this species is central-European and southern-European.

This species native range is Mediterranean Europe, specifically (Spain, …), Western Europe

Western Europe

Western Europe is a loose term for the collection of countries in the western most region of the European continents, though this definition is context-dependent and carries cultural and political connotations. One definition describes Western Europe as a geographic entity—the region lying in the...

 (Great Britain

Great Britain

Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...

 and Ireland

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

, Netherlands, …) and Central Europe (Czech Republic - least concern (LC), Poland, Slovakia, …).

It has also been accidentally introduced to several other countries:

• Latvia since 2006
• Bermuda
  Bermuda
  Bermuda is a British overseas territory in the North Atlantic Ocean. Located off the east coast of the United States, its nearest landmass is Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, about to the west-northwest. It is about south of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, and northeast of Miami, Florida...
  
   since 1861
• The USA (in Pennsylvania and in Florida, in Maryland since 1959, in Virginia since 2006, in California, in New Jersey and in New Mexico)
• New Zealand.
• Australia

External links

• http://www.animalbase.uni-goettingen.de/zooweb/servlet/AnimalBase/home/species?id=1286
• http://www.faunaeur.org/full_results.php?id=274523