Myxas glutinosa

Myxas glutinosa (glutinous snail) is a species of small air-breathing freshwater snail, an aquatic gastropod mollusc in the family Lymnaeidae, the pond snails.

Myxas glutinosa
Four shells of Myxas glutinosa, scale bar in cm & mm
Conservation status
Data Deficient  (IUCN 2.3)[1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Mollusca
Class:	Gastropoda
Superorder:	Hygrophila
Family:	Lymnaeidae
Genus:	Myxas
Species:	M. glutinosa
Binomial name
Myxas glutinosa (O. F. Müller, 1774)[2]

Anatomy

drawing of apertural view of the shell of Myxas glutinosa

This snail is unusual in that it extends its almost transparent mantle to completely cover the shell when it is in motion, giving the very small animal a glass-like appearance. It also makes the animal sticky to the touch, hence its common name.

Shell Description

The shell is 13 to 16 mm in height and 11 mm to 15 mm in width in the adult. The upper whorls are almost flat so that the shell has a short blunt spire, the last whorl is inflated and predominating. The aperture is more than 90% of the shell height. The umbilicus is closed. The shell colour is brown or green, extremely thin and very transparent and shiny.

Distribution

This species is European: it is now rare in western Europe, and even rarer in eastern Europe.

• British Isles - listed in List of endangered species in the British Isles
  • This species is fully protected in the United Kingdom under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 since 1981.^[3]
  • Great Britain - in one locality in Wales^[4]
  • Ireland - extinct in Northern Ireland, still common in the Royal Canal and Grand Canal in central Ireland^[5]
• Czech Republic - extinct in Bohemia^[6]
• Germany - critically endangered (vom Aussterben bedroht)^[7]
• Netherlands
• Poland

According to the IUCN red list^[1] it is also native to Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Norway, Russian Federation, Sweden and Ukraine.

Habitat

This species requires pollution-free, extremely clear, calm water, in calcium-rich canals, streams and lakes.

It is rapidly declining or already extinct in many European countries, because of the loss of good habitat.