| Slender Amber Snail (Oxyloma elegans (Risso, 1826)) |
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Scientific name: Oxyloma elegans (Risso, 1826) Common name: Slender Amber Snail French name: Ambrette élégante Order: Stylommatophora Size: 12 to 15 mm (20 mm maximum). Habitat : Vegetation of very damp areas, marshes, water meadows, pond banks, etc. You can also find the Slender Amber Snail on floating plants. Food: Rotting plants and dead insects. Reproduction : Cross-fertilizing hermaphrodite. The eggs are laid in water. Geographic area: Europe, North Africa, temperate and northern Asia. The range is extending northwards. |
The Slender Amber Snail is a terrestrial gastropod living near water. The thin and translucent shell, with an elongated shape, shows three whorls. The last one is about three quarter of the total size. The general colour varies from pale yellow to dark brown. The aperture is large and oval-shaped. Like other members of this family, the Slender Amber Snail's body cannot totally enter inside the shell. The body is rather dark and shows many black spots on the back. Due to some variability, it is very difficult to be 100% sure when you tell apart species of the Succineidae family. The Amber Snail (Succinea putris) is less closely bound to water. The last whorl is more rounded compared to Oxyloma elegans where the last slender whorl rather gives an overall conical shape. The general colour varies form pale brown to orange. The body of the Amber Snail is reddish or yellowish. It is paler on the sides. There are no black spots. The Amber Snail can also reach a larger size (up to 27 mm). Oxyloma sarsii is very similar to Oxyloma elegans. However the shell is more reddish and slightly more rounded. Oxyloma dunkeri has a longer shell and the first whorl is hardly visible. |
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The shape of the shell, whose large last whorl is not very rounded, and the dark colour seem to indicate Oxyloma elegans. The location of this observation, vegetation bordering a pond, matches the usual habitat of this species. |
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I have first thought to the Amber Snail Succinea putris. But, the black spots you can see on the body of the gastropod make me rather think to a juvenile Slender Amber Snail. |
André Bon July 2011