Pleurocera acuta

Pleurocera acuta, common name the sharp hornsnail, is a species of small freshwater snail with a gill and an operculum, an aquatic gastropod mollusk in the family Pleuroceridae, the hornsnails.

Pleurocera acuta
Apertural view of a shell of Pleurocera acuta
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Mollusca
Class:	Gastropoda
Subclass:	Caenogastropoda
Family:	Pleuroceridae
Genus:	Pleurocera
Species:	P. acuta
Binomial name
Pleurocera acuta Rafinesque, 1831

Shell description

The shell can have up to 14 whorls. The shell of this species can be as long as 37 mm.

Distribution

Pleurocera acuta is native to the United States. It occurs in the Ohio River and Great Lakes drainages; the Mississippi River west to Kansas and Nebraska.

This species is listed as threatened in some Midwestern states.

The nonindigenous distribution of Pleurocera acuta includes the Lower Hudson River drainage and Oneida Lake in New York State. It was introduced there, probably via the Erie Canal.

Ecology

This species is found in freshwater rivers and streams where it burrows in sand and mud. Eggs are laid in the spring.

References

This article incorporates public domain text from the reference

Further reading

• Dazo B. C. (1962). "The morphology and natural history of Pleurocera acuta Rafinesque and Goniobasis livescens (Menke) (Mollusca: Gastropoda: Prosobranchia)". Biological Station, University of Michigan (UMBS). http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/handle/2027.42/52120
• Katherine Hanke Houp. (January 1970) "Population Dynamics of Pleurocera acuta in a Central Kentucky Limestone Stream". American Midland Naturalist 83(1): 81-88.
• Strong E. E. (2005) "A morphological reanalysis of Pleurocera acuta Rafinesque, 1831, and Elimia livescens (Menke, 1830) (Gastropoda: Cerithioidea: Pleuroceridae)". The Nautilus 119(4): 119-132. abstract, http://hdl.handle.net/10088/7388