Gyraulus albus

Gyraulus albus, common name white ramshorn, is a small species of freshwater snail, an aquatic pulmonate gastropod mollusk in the family Planorbidae, the ram's horn snails.

Gyraulus albus
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Mollusca
Class:	Gastropoda
Superorder:	Hygrophila
Family:	Planorbidae
Genus:	Gyraulus
Species:	G. albus
Binomial name
Gyraulus albus (O. F. Müller, 1774)[1]
Synonyms
Planorbis albus Müller, 1774 Planorbis hispidus Draparnaud, 1805

Gyraulus albus is the type species of the genus Gyraulus.

Distribution

Palearctic:

• Belgium
• Czech Republic^[2] - least concern (LC)
• Germany
• Hungary
• Netherlands^[3]
• Poland
• Slovakia^[2]
• Great Britain
• Ireland

Habitat

This small snail lives in various types of freshwater habitats among weed and on bottom mud. It doesn't require a high level of calcium.

Description

The shell of this species is rather small, reaching a height of 1.3 - 1.8 mm and a width of 4 – 7 mm. This shell has a discoid shape with 4 - 4½ body whorls that expand in the direction of the aperture. This aperture and the whorls are curved and do not have a keel.

The shell of this species is white (sometimes darkened by mud deposits) and has a characteristic spiral sculpture.