Chytra kirki

Chytra kirki
Conservation status
Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Mollusca
Class:	Gastropoda
(unranked):	clade Caenogastropoda clade Sorbeoconcha
Superfamily:	Cerithioidea
Family:	Paludomidae
Subfamily:	Hauttecoeuriinae
Tribe:	Tiphobiini[2]
Genus:	Chytra Moore, 1898[3]
Species:	C. kirki
Binomial name
Chytra kirki (E. A. Smith, 1880)[4]
Synonyms
Limnotrochus Kirkii E. A. Smith, 1880

Chytra kirki is a species of tropical freshwater snail with an operculum, aquatic gastropod mollusk in the family Paludomidae.[1]

Chytra kirki is the only species in the genus Chytra.[5]

The specific name kirki is in honor of explorer John Kirk (1832-1922), who has donated various other specimen of snails (not this species) to the Natural History Museum.[6]

Distribution

This species is found in Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania, and Zambia.[1] The type locality is Lake Tanganyika.[4]

Description

The shell is solid, trochiform and dirty whitish in color.[6] The spire is acutely conical.[6] The shell has 6 or 7 feebly concave whorls.[6] They are bearing arcuate and flexuous lines of growth and six or seven granulous lirae, whereof that immediately above the suture is the largest.[6] The body whorl is acutely angular at the periphery, encircled by two subequal granular ridges.[6] The base is concave near the circumference, then slightly convex, concentrically granosely ridged.[6] The ridges nearest the umbilicus are coarser than the others, and also arcuately radiately striated.[6] The shell has deep and narrow umbilicus.[6]

The aperture is irregularly subcircular and whitish.[6] The outer lip (viewed laterally) is obliquely incurved.[6] Basal and columellar margins are forming one strongly arcuate line joined above to the extremity of the labrum by a thickish callosity.[6]

The width of the shell is 19 mm.[5] The height of the shell is 15 mm.[5]

Black and white drawing of lateral view of the shell.

Black and white drawing of umbilical view of the shell.

Ecology

Its natural habitat is freshwater lakes.[1] It is widespread[5] species in the Lake Tanganyika, but its distribution is patchy and with low numbers of snails.[1] It lives on the mud with much organic material in depths 10–20 meters.[1][5] There is possibility that it can live in depths up to 80 m.[1][5]

References

This article incorporates public domain text from the reference[6]

1. Ngereza, C.; Nicayenzi, F. (2010). "Chytra kirki". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2010: e.T4833A11099367. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2010-3.RLTS.T4833A11099367.en. Retrieved 16 November 2021.
2. Strong E. E. & Glaubrecht M. (2010). "Anatomy of the Tiphobiini from Lake Tanganyika (Cerithioidea, Paludomidae)". Malacologia 52(1): 115-153. doi:10.4002/040.052.0108.
3. Moore J. E. S. (1898). "On the Hypothesis that Lake Tanganyika represents an Old Jurassic Sea". Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science (N.S.) 41: 303-321. 307. plate 23, figure 6.
4. Smith E. A. (1880). "Diagnoses of new shells from Lake Tanganyika and East Africa". Annals and Magazine of Natural History (5)6: 425-430. page 426.
5. Brown D. S. (1994). Freshwater Snails of Africa and their Medical Importance. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 0-7484-0026-5.
6. Smith E. A. (1881). "On a collection of shells from lakes Tanganyika and Nyassa and other localities in East Africa". Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 1881: 276-300. Plate 33, figure 18-18b.