Xerocrassa meda (Porro, 1840)Santa Venera, Malta
One of the commonest snails in Maltese gardens is this medium-sized species that apparently does not mind living in human-influenced habitats, actually preferring cultivated patches to the Mediterranean garigue so beloved of its other relatives. It might have originally been a Maltese and South-Sicilian endemic, eventually spreading to other Mediterranean islands by human intervention.
X. meda is one of two species in the genus Xerocrassa in Malta, which is sometimes treated as a synonym of Trochoidea, but which actually presents anatomical differences from that genus and is herein treated separately following the AnimalBase entry.
Shell identification
X. meda is one of two species in the genus Xerocrassa in Malta, which is sometimes treated as a synonym of Trochoidea, but which actually presents anatomical differences from that genus and is herein treated separately following the AnimalBase entry.
Shell identification
- 6-8mm
- pale brown or cream colour with darker bracket-shaped stripes
- aperture with a slight pinkish colour
- umbilicus pin-point shaped
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