Further Species in the Helix Genus

Helix melanostoma Draparnaud 1801

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Source: Vienna Natural History Museum (Dr. Karl Edlinger).

Description: Shell very bulbous, spire with four whorls, hardly ascending. Umbilicus invisible. Shell surface is irregularly striped and wrinkled. Base colour is white to yellowish-grey, dark bands are almost invisible or missing completely. Inside of shell aperture distinctly dark coloured until chestnut-brown and glossy.

Habitat: Open low bush areas, also vineyards and olive groves. Active only in the early morning and in the evening. During dry periods usually dug into the ground.

Distribution: Mediterranean Southern France near the Rhône River mouth (Départements Var, Bouches du Rhône), but also in the Alpes Maritimes, the Basses Alpes and the Hérault. Besides in the coastal areas in Tunisia and Algeria.

Remark: May only be picked for personal use.

Helix cincta O.F. Müller 1774

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Source: Vienna Natural History Museum (Dr. Karl Edlinger).

Description: Spherical shell with ascended conical spire and small apex with distinctly narrow first whorls. Last whorl only little extended. Thick walled shell, irregularly striped, partly with light spiral lines. Base colour yellowish grey, bands light to dark brown. Upper bands almost always molten to one single band, distinctly marked off at the bottom. Aperture little oblique, usually rounded and higher than wide. Aperture rim only little widened, blunt and extended to form a lip. Columella, aperture wall and rim strongly brown-coloured. Umbilicus invisible.

Habitat: Shrub and rocky steppes, below bushes. During dry time often dug into the ground.

Distribution: Eastern Mediterranean: From Central and Western Asia Minor, over the Aegean Isles and all of Greece as far as the Eastern Adriatic coastal areas of Albania and Istria and into Northern Italy (Friuli, Lombardy).

Giusti, F., Fiorentino, V., Manganelli, G. (2015): A neotype for Helix cincta Müller, 1774 (Gastropoda, Pulmonata, Helicidae). Journal of Conchology 42/2, p. 209.

Helix ligata O.F. Müller 1774

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Source: Vienna Natural History Museum (Dr. Karl Edlinger).

Description: Light brownish base colour, sometimes almost white. Bands usually thin, light rust coloured to chestnut brown. Rim of the oblique aperture folded back only in the columellar part, pale rose colour to brownish violet. Umbilicus slit-like open to completely invisible.

Habitat: Bushes and open mountain groves in low and middle heights, but also beyond the tree line. In the Abruzzi Mountains as high as 2000 m above sea level there are smaller altitude varieties.

Distribution: Central and Southern Italy; from Tuscany and the Marches in the North as far as Calabria in the South, not in Apulia and Sicily.