E-Fauna BC Home

Vitrea contracta (Westerlund, 1871)
Contracted Glass-Snail
Family: Pristilomatidae
Species account author: Robert Forsyth.
Introduction to the Land Snails of BC

Photograph

© Robert Forsyth     (Photo ID #13381)

Map

E-Fauna BC Static Map

Distribution of Vitrea contracta in British Columbia in British Columbia

Species Information

Diagnosis Vitrea contracta differs from Pristiloma species by the combination of its clear or whitish shell, with small umbilicus. Microphysual is pale coloured and closely coiled but has microscopic spiral striae. The whitish immature Vallonia pulchella and V. pulchella in which the thickened lip has not yet developed, might initially be confused but the coiling is looser and the surface has coarse microsculpture and is less shiny. Shell

Minute, colourless or whitish, tightly coiled, flattened, narrowly umbilicate, and without apertural dentition.

Animal

Pale tan or ivory white; ocular tentacles are translucent with black eye spots (Roth 1977).

Habitat


In BC, found in gardens, parks, and on waste ground (open, disturbed sites). Like most land snails, Vitrea contracta finds shelter under rocks, wood and other debris, living and dead vegetation, and leaf litter (Forsyth, 2004). In Britain, where it is native, a broader range of habitats are occupied, including grasslands, woodlands, around cliffs, in caves, talus slopes and stone walls and it is often associated with dry areas having limestone (Kerney 1999), but in British Columbia not especially associated with limey areas (Grimm et al. 2010). On a calcareous down in England, fresh shells were found below the surface, suggesting that this species also lives in soil voids (Carter 1990).

Distribution


Global range

Native to the Western Palaearctic: widespread in Europe, from Iceland and coastal regions of Scandinavia south to the Iberian Peninsula; around the Mediterranean, in North Africa, east to Greece (RIEDEL 1992) and Asia Minor. East to the Baltic Countries, Ukraine, Crimea and the Caucasus (Sysoev and Schileyko 2009). Introduced to southern coastal area in the state of Victoria, Australia (Long 1972, Smith 1992), Colombia (Hausdorff 2002), and in North America, known from San Francisco, California (Roth 1977, Roth and Sadeghian 2006); Lynden, northwest Washington (Roth and Pearce 1984); Ontario and British Columbia (Grimm et al. 2010, Forsyth 2004).

BC range

Known from around Metro Vancouver and east in lower Fraser Valley to near Chilliwack, the southern Gulf Islands, along the east coast of Vancouver Island (north to Nanaimo), and Skidegate, Queen Charlotte Islands (Forsyth 1999, 2004, Grimm et al. 2010).

Ecozones

Pacific Maritime.

Status Information

Origin StatusProvincial StatusBC List
(Red Blue List)		COSEWIC
ExoticSNAExoticNot Listed



BC Ministry of Environment: BC Species and Ecosystems Explorer--the authoritative source for conservation information in British Columbia.

Additional Range and Status Information Links

NatureServe Explorer

General References

Google Scholar Search

© 2014 E-Fauna BC  Contact us