Critically Endangered
Potamopyrgus oppidanus
Potamopyrgus oppidanus
Potamopyrgus oppidanus is a snail in the family Tateidae (order Littorinimorpha), recorded as Critically Endangered and tied to New Zealand.
Appearance
The shell is light brown in colour and semi transparent. The colour of the mantle can be patchy and there are two black stripes on the head of the snail.
This species is approximately 3 mm in length and just over 1 mm in width.
Range and habitat
P. Oppidanus is endemic to New Zealand and has only be found on Te Ahumairangi Hill in the town belt of Wellington. The species was first found in a fountain near Grant Road where it intersects with Wadestown Road. The stream near the fountain was subsequently rerouted into a manmade stream bed and the snails can no longer be found there.
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
This species has a "Nationally Critical" conservation status under the Department of Conservation threat classification system. P. Oppidanus has also been classified by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as critically endangered. It has a decreasing population and is only found in one location.
The IUCN considers P. Oppidanus as under threat from residential and commercial development, ecosystem modification, decline and fragmentation, the possibility of fire and use of fire suppressants, as well as the possibility of pollution in the freshwater habitat of the species. The IUCN recommends that the known site and the surrounding vegetation be protected and that research be undertaken into the distribution of the species as well as life history and ecology as well as threats to the species.
Potamopyrgus oppidanus 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 Potamopyrgus oppidanus, Wikidata item Q21815293. 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.
