Clithon spinosum is a species of brackish water and freshwater snail with an operculum, a nerite. It is an aquatic gastropod mollusk in the family Neritidae, the nerites.

Clithon spinosum
Clithon spinosum shells
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Gastropoda
Subclass: Neritimorpha
Order: Cycloneritida
Family: Neritidae
Genus: Clithon
Species:
C. spinosum
Binomial name
Clithon spinosum
Synonyms[1]

Neritina spinosa G. B. Sowerby I, 1825 (original combination)
Clithon spinosus [sic] (incorrect gender ending)
Neritina undata Lamarck, 1822
Neritina inermis Martens, 1878

Distribution

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Distribution of Clithon spinosum includes the Indo-Pacific and it ranges from New Guinea[2] and south-eastern Asia and eastern Asia to Marquesas.[3] It also occurs in Japan,[4] New Georgia,[5] Fiji[2] and Tahiti[2] and in French Polynesia including the following Society Islands: Tahiti, Mo'orea, Raiatea, Huahine.[3]

Description

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There are always spines on its shell.[2] Spines are long and thin and they are directed rearward.[6] The width of the shell is 15–20 mm.[7]

Ecology

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Clithon spinosum is a dioecious (it has two separate sexes) and amphidromous snail.[3] Adults live in freshwater and larvae are marine.[3] Larvae are long-lived planktotrophs.[3] Adults prefer boulders and cobbles over granules as a substrate.[6][4] They were found mainly on bottom of rocks in aquaria and in situ.[6] They are reported from altitude 0–10 m a.s.l.[6] They can reach densities up to 57.0 ± 17.3 snails per square meter of a stream.[6] Adults can survive 8 hours in seawater (longer exposure was not tested).[6]

It is not used as food source by humans.[3]

References

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  1. ^ Bouchet, P.; Rosenberg, G. (2016). Clithon spinosum (G. B. Sowerby I, 1825). In: MolluscaBase (2015). Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=737522 on 2016-09-06
  2. ^ a b c d Haynes A. (1988). "Notes on the stream neritids (Gastropoda: Prosobranchia) of Oceania". Micronesica 21: 93–102. PDF.
  3. ^ a b c d e f Myers M. J., Meyer C. P. & Resh V. H. (2000). "Neritid and thiarid gastropods from French Polynesian streams: how reproduction (sexual, parthenogenetic) and dispersal (active, passive) affect population structure". Freshwater Biology 44(3): 535–545. doi:10.1046/j.1365-2427.2000.00599.x.
  4. ^ a b Blanco J. F. & Scatena F. N. (2007). "The spatial arrangement of Neritina virginea (Gastropoda: Neritidae) during upstream migration in a split‐channel reach". River Research and Applications 23(3): 235–245. PDF.
  5. ^ Haynes A. (1990). "The numbers of freshwater gastropods on Pacific islands and the theory of island biogeography". Malacologia 31: 237-248.
  6. ^ a b c d e f Liu H. T. T. & Resh V. H. (1997). "Abundance and microdistribution of freshwater gastropods in three streams of Moorea, French Polynesia". International Journal of Limnology 33(4): 235–244. doi:10.1051/limn/1997022.
  7. ^ Tryon G. W. (1888–1889) Manual of Conchology, structural and systematic, with illustrations of the species. Volume 10, 322 pp., 69 plates. page 63, plate 23, figure 6–7.
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