Helicella itala

Helicella itala is a species of medium-sized, air-breathing land snail, a terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusc in the family Geomitridae, the hairy snails and their allies.^[1]

Helicella itala
shell of Helicella itala
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Mollusca
Class:	Gastropoda
Order:	Stylommatophora
Family:	Geomitridae
Genus:	Helicella
Species:	H. itala
Binomial name
Helicella itala (Linnaeus, 1758)
Distribution
Synonyms
Helicella (Helicella) itala (Linnaeus, 1758) Helix itala Linnaeus, 1758 (original combination)

The English common name for this species is heath snail.

Subspecies

• Helicella itala itala (Linnaeus, 1758)
• Helicella itala pampelonensis (A. Schmidt, 1855)

Life cycle

The width of the egg is 1.5 mm.^[2]

Drawing of a love dart of Helicella itala.

This species of snail makes and uses love darts during mating.

Description

The 12–20 mm. shell is broad and very depressed with an open coil forming a convex, low spire. The umbilicus is very wide. The whorls are slightly convex, and have shallow sutures. The aperture is elliptical and lacks an internal rib. The surface (periostracum) is white or pale yellow-brown. The shell often (but not always) has dark brown or yellow-brown spiral bands, and the surface has fine irregular growth ridges.

• 
  banded form, apical side
• 
  banded form, umbilical side
• 
  white form, apical side
• 
  white form, umbilical side

Distribution

The common heath snail is a West Palearctic species which is found in the British Isles, France, Spain, Belgium, Netherlands, Switzerland, Denmark, Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, and Poland.

Habitat

The animals live on dry, exposed habitats, such as roadsides and railway embankments, vegetated sand dunes as well as rock boulders and short grassland. They live up to 2000 m above sea level in the Alps and Pyrenees.