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Stocky Door SnailPseudofusulus varians (C. Pfeiffer, 1828) |
 Stocky Door Snails (Pseudofusulus varians), one dark and one amelanistic specimen. Photo: Tomŕš Burian, Source. |
Photos: Helmut Nisters. |
The columellar fold is forked and positioned deep in the inner part of the shell. Looking into the aperture from a perpendicular point of view it is hardly visible. The palatal wall as white and protuberant. The shell does not display a moon fold (lunella). The subcolumellaris is very close to the basal groove and visible in the aperture at an oblique view. The clausilium is not very bent (see: The Closing Apparatus of Door Snails).
Size: L: 9 - 12 mm; W: 2,2 - 3 mm; N: 9 - 10.
Habitat and Distribution: The Stocky Door Snail lives in humid and shady places in forests, as well as in the leaf litter and in between rocks. In Czechia, the Stocky Door Snail only lives on trees, its habitat there only covers natural areas not influenced by humans, as well as hard to reach areas in natural beech forests.
The species' distribution area spreads over the Eastern Alps and the Northwestern Carpathians. While the species originally was described from Styria in Austria, it is proven to be found in the Southwestern Alps as far as Croatia, as well as the East Moravian and Silesian Beskids and the Lower Tatra in Slovakia.
 Photos of the habitat of the Stocky Door Snail in Czechia. Left: Natural beech forest with a high content of deadwood on Klínovčík Mountain. Right: Hillside forest with ash trees in Domaslavické Údolí National Park. Source. |
Threat Situation: In Czechia, the Stocky Door Snail is on of the most threatened gastropod species. Since the snail there only lives in natural places left alone by humans, it is especially threatened by deadwood removal and deforestation. While it is extinct in its only destination in Moravia, it is only still known from seven destinations in Bohemia. Findings from Slovakia are from the 60s and 70s and have not been checked since.
