Lantzia

The gastropod

Lantzia is a gastropod in the family Lymnaeidae — Lantzia carinata.

Range and habitat

Lantzia is a small, limpet-like lymnaeid endemic to mountain streams and waterfalls at an altitude of 1200–1300 meters asl on the island of Réunion, where it clings to mosses and stones- similarly to the Hawaiian Erinna species. Despite a similarity in habitat choice and morphology, this is assumed to be a case of convergence rather than one originating from evolutionary radiation (although this genus has occasionally been synonymized with Erinna). It is endemic to montane streams on the Indian Ocean island of Réunion.

Along with Madagasikara zazavavindrano and Pisidium betafoense, this species is one of the only three Critically Endangered freshwater mollusk species recorded from the Madagascar and the Indian Ocean islands hotspot.

Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.

Diet

Snails move on a single foot and feed with a rasping tongue. Island and spring species rarely recolonise once the site is emptied.

In crisis

Threats posed by declines in habitat quality as a result of invasive species have caused the species to, under IUCN criteria B2ab(iii), be assessed as Critically Endangered. In addition, a lack of recorded occurrences in modern endemic malacofaunal surveys has presented the caveat 'Possibly Extinct' to this species' status.

Lantzia is Critically Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.

Sources

Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Lantzia, Wikidata item Q308399. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.