Cathaica pyrrhozona is a species of air-breathing land snail, a terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusk in the family Camaenidae, which is similar to Cathaica fasciola on shell morphology.MolluscaBase eds. (2023). MolluscaBase. Cathaica pyrrhozona (R. A. Philippi, 1845). Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at: https://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=1674203 on 2023-10-19 But this species has single proximal accessory sac instead of two.
Taxonomy This species was described under the name Helix pyrrhozona by German–Chilean paleontologist and zoologist Rodolfo Amando Philippi in 1845.
Distribution This species was considered as synonym of Cathaica fasciola which was considered as widely distributed in China.Tryon G. W. & Pilsbry H. A. (1892). Volume 8. Helicidae – Volume VI. – Manual of Conchology, structural and systematic, with illustrations of the species. Second series: Pulmonata. pages 204-205, plate 47, figures 60-63. However, Zhang and Wade (2023) found that Cathaica fasciola and Cathaica pyrrhozona are two different species.
Description The shell is same with Cathaica fasciola, thin,Tryon G. W. (1887) Volume 3. Helicidae – Volume I. – Manual of Conchology, structural and systematic, with illustrations of the species. Second series: Pulmonata. page 208, plate 47, figures 57-59. but solid. The color of the shell is white, rather opaque, with a broad chestnut-brown band at the periphery, and a faint brownish band below the suture. The shape of the shell is depressed above and below. The spire is low-conoid. The surface is shining, sculptured above with close rib-striae, becoming more delicate below. The shell has 5½ whorls. The earliest whorl is smooth, shining, forming a subacute apex. The following whorls are slightly convex, slowly increasing, separated by an impressed suture. The last whorl is much wider, rounded at the periphery, hardly descending in front. The aperture is slightly oblique, lunate-oval. The peristome is white and thickened with a strong white lip. The umbilicus is rapidly narrowing to a narrow, deep perforation. The width of umbilicus is one-eighth the greatest diameter.
The width of the shell is . The height of the shell is .
Digestive system The radula and jaw was depicted by George Washington Tryon and Henry Augustus Pilsbry in 1894.Tryon G. W. & Pilsbry H. A. (1894). Volume 9. Helicidae – Volume VII. – Manual of Conchology, structural and systematic, with illustrations of the species. Second series: Pulmonata. pages 205-206, plate 55, figures 6-7, plate 65, figures 7-8, plate 66, figure 32.
Reproductive system The penis is slender, ending in a long retractor and the terminal vas deferens. The dart sac is large, opening into the atrium. There is a dense cluster of about ten club-shaped, glandular mucous glands near the atrium base. The spermatheca duct is long. Only one proximal accessory sac is found, which let this species be distinguished from C. fasciola.
References
External links
Philippi, R. A. (1845-1847). Abbildungen und Beschreibungen neuer oder wenig gekannter Conchylien. Zweiter Band. 2. Cassel: Fischer. 1-231, pls. 1-48. Zhang, G. & Wade, C.M. (2023) Molecular phylogeny and morphological evolution of the Chinese land snail Cathaica Möllendorff, 1884 (Eupulmonata: Camaenidae) in Shandong Province, China. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society