Megalena crassa

Megalena crassa
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Mollusca
Class:	Gastropoda
(unranked):	clade Heterobranchia clade Euthyneura clade Panpulmonata clade Eupulmonata clade Stylommatophora informal group Orthurethra
Superfamily:	Enoidea
Family:	Enidae
Subfamily:	Eninae
Tribe:	Enini
Genus:	Megalena Hausdorf, 1999[1]
Species:	M. crassa
Binomial name
Megalena crassa (Retowski, 1887)[2]
Synonyms
Buliminus (Zebrina?) crassus Retowski, 1887 Paramastus ? goettingi Forcart, 1961[3]

Megalena crassa, is a species of air-breathing land snail, a terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusk in the family Enidae.

Megalena is a monotypic genus, i.e. it contains only one species, Megalena crassa and therefore this species is also the type species.[1]

The generic name is composed from the prefix mega-, which means "large" from the ancient Greek language, and from the suffix -ena, for which the etymological origin is unknown.[1]

Specimens of this species are stored in collections in Europe: Germany (Senckenberg Museum, Institute of Zoology and Museum of Zoology of University of Hamburg), Poland (Institute of Zoology of Polish Academy of Sciences in Warszawa) and in the Netherlands.[1]

Distribution

This species is known only from a few individuals which were found in northwestern Turkey.[1]

Description

The shell is oval and elongated. The height of the shell is from 23.9 mm to 28.7 mm.

References

1. Hausdorf H. (1999) "A new genus of the Buliminidae from Turkey (Gastropoda: Stylommatophora)". Journal of Natural History 33: 149-154. PDF Archived 2006-10-28 at the Wayback Machine
2. (in German) Retowski O. (1887) "Am Strande der Krim gefundene angeschwemmte Binnenconchylien". Malakozoologische Blatter, Neue Folge, 9: 22-42.
3. (in German) Forcart L. (1961) "Systematisches Verzeichnis der von Herrn Klaus-Jürgen Gotting 1960 in der Türkei gesammelten Mollusken und Neubeschreibung einer Paramastus-Art". Archiv für Molluskenkunde 90: 175-180.