Helix lucorum, known commonly as the Turkish SnailMienis, Henk & Rittner, Oz. (2010). On the presence of Helix lucorum Linnaeus, 1758 (Mollusca, Gastropoda, Helicidae) in Le Vesinet, a western suburb of Paris.. MalaCo. 6. 266-267., is a species of large, edible, air-breathing land snail, a terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusk in the family Helicidae, the typical snails.
Description
Adult snails weigh about 20–25 g.Danilova A.B. & Grinkevich L. N. (2012). "Failure of Long-Term Memory Formation in Juvenile Snails Is Determined by Acetylation Status of Histone H3 and Can Be Improved by NaB Treatment". PLoS ONE 7(7): e41828. .
The width of the shell is 35–60 mm. The height of the shell is 25–45 mm.
This species of snail makes and uses love darts.
Distribution The native distribution is the Caucasus, Anatolia and, arguably, the Balkans. It has also invaded many other regions since ancient times, likely assisted by humans.Korábek O., Juřičková L., Balashov I., Petrusek A. The contribution of ancient and modern anthropogenic introductions to the colonization of Europe by the land snail Helix lucorum Linnaeus, 1758 (Helicidae) // Contributions to Zoology. — 2018. — 87 (2). — P. 61—74.
Eastern native range with main genetic diversity of the species: Anatolia (Turkey) GeorgiaMumladze L. (2013). "Shell size differences in Helix lucorum Linnaeus, 1758 (Mollusca: Gastropoda) between natural and urban environments". Turkish Journal of Zoology 37: 1-6. Azerbaijan Armenia Northern Iran
Balkans: Albania Bosnia and Herzegovina Bulgaria Croatia Greece Macedonia Serbia Turkey
Other countries: IsraelCommonwealth of Australia (2002 April). "Citrus Imports from the Arab Republic of Egypt. A Review Under Existing Import Conditions for Citrus from Israel" . Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, Australia. Caption: Gastropods, page 12 and Appendix 2. Syria China - invasive Russia - could be native in Caucasus, invasive in some other regions Italy - probably invasive Hungary - probably invasive Romania - probably invasive Ukraine - invasive, in Crimea ("Helix taurica Krynicki, 1833") at least since early 19 century, probably much longer, these populations originated from Anatolia; other colonies of a different lineage also appear since 2000s in mainland part of Southern Ukraine and in Crimea as wellBalashov I. & Gural-Sverlova N. (2012). "An annotated checklist of the terrestrial molluscs of Ukraine". Journal of Conchology 41(1): 91-109.Balashov I.A., Kramarenko S.S., Zhukov A.V., Shklyaruk A.N., Baidashnikov A.A., Vasyliuk A.V. 2013. Contribution to the knowledge of terrestrial molluscs in southeastern Ukraine. Malacologica Bohemoslovaca. 12: 62–69. Czech Republic - invasive, since 2009, as of 2011 the only locality is Prague-Žižkov Horsák M., Juřičková L., Beran L., Čejka T. & Dvořák L. (2010). "Komentovaný seznam měkkýšů zjištěných ve volné přírodě České a Slovenské republiky. [Annotated list of mollusc species recorded outdoors in the Czech and Slovak Republics]". Malacologica Bohemoslovaca, Suppl. 1: 1-37. PDF.Peltanová A., Petrusek A., Kment P. & Juřičková L. (2011). "A fast snail's pace: colonization of Central Europe by Mediterranean gastropods". Biological Invasions 14(4): 759-764. . Slovakia - invasive, since 2013, as of 2014 the only locality is in BratislavaČejka T. & Čačaný J. (2014). "The first record of the Turkish snail (Helix lucorum L., 1758) in the Slovak Republic". Malacologica Bohemoslovaca 13: 124–125. PDF. France - invasive Great Britain - invasive, since 2009, at Wimbledon
Ecology The diameter of the egg is 4.4 mm.Heller J.: Life History Strategies. in Barker G. M. (ed.): The biology of terrestrial molluscs. CABI Publishing, Oxon, UK, 2001, . 1-146, cited page: 428. Juvenile snails that are two to three months old weigh 0.5–0.9 g.
Human use Measurement of DNA damage in H. lucorum collected from environmental sites can be used for evaluating soil pollution at these sites.Sargsyan A, Hovhannisyan G, Simonyan A, Arakelyan M, Arzumanyan M, Aroutiounian R. Application of land snail Helix lucorum for evaluation of genotoxicity of soil pollution. Mutat Res Genet Toxicol Environ Mutagen. 2022 Jun;878:503500. doi: 10.1016/j.mrgentox.2022.503500. Epub 2022 May 6. PMID 35649673 DNA damage in H. lucorum haemocytes and digestive gland cells is determined by the comet assay.
Helix lucorum is used in cuisine as escargots.
References
External links
The Striped Helix or Turkish Snail (Helix lucorum) on The Living World of Molluscs
https://web.archive.org/web/20120529085410/http://szmn.sbras.ru/picts/Mollusca/Helix_lucorum.htm
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