Helix pronuba

Helix pronuba is a species of large, air-breathing land snail in the subfamily Helicinae of the family Helicidae.^[1]

Helix pronuba
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Mollusca
Class:	Gastropoda
Order:	Stylommatophora
Family:	Helicidae
Subfamily:	Helicinae
Tribe:	Helicini
Genus:	Helix
Species:	H. pronuba
Binomial name
Helix pronuba Westerlund & Blanc, 1879
Synonyms
Helix (Helicogena) grothei Kobelt, 1905 (junior synonym) Helix (Helicogena) rueppelli Kobelt, 1904 (junior synonym) Helix (Helix) pronuba Westerlund, 1879 · alternate representation Helix thiesseana var. nupta Westerlund, 1879 (junior synonym) Helix thiesseana var. pronuba Westerlund, 1879 (basionym)

Distribution

It is native to Tunisia, Libya and Egypt and introduced to Crete and Greece.

Description

It is characterized by a shell relatively small for the genus with dark brown margins of the shell aperture.^[2] In the local language of Crete these snails are sometimes called "barbarésos" or "bárbaros", which might suggest their origin in Barbaria (North Africa).^[3]