Glossary of gastropod terms

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The following is a glossary of common English language and scientific terms used in the description of gastropods.

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• Abapical – away from the apex of a shell toward the base

• Acephalous – Headless.

• Acinose – Full of small bulgings; resembling the kernel in a nut.

• Aculeate – Very sharply pointed, as the teeth on the radula of some snails.

• Acuminate – gradually tapering to a point, as the spire of some shells.

• Acute – Sharp or pointed, as the spire of a shell, or the lip of a shell.

• Adapical – toward the apex of a shell (<--> abapical)

• Admedian – Next to the central object, as the lateral teeth on the lingual membrane.

• Adpressed – with overlapping whorls or with a suture tightly pressed to the previous whorl (preferred to the term appressed)

• Afferent – To bring in; when relating to a vessel or duct, indicating that it brings in its contents.

• Amoeboid – Shaped like an amoeba, a small animalcule.

• Amorphous – Without distinct form.

• Amphibious – Inhabiting both land and water.

• Amphidetic – With the ligament on both sides of the umbones.

• Anal canal – Tubular of gutter-like opening in the shell of a gastropod through which excrements are expelled (see also: siphonal canal)

• Analogue – A likeness between two objects when otherwise they are totally different, as the wing of a bird and the wing of a butterfly.

• Anastomosing – Coming together.

• Annular – Made up of rings.

• Anterior – The front or fore end.

• Aquatic – Inhabiting the water.

• Arborescent – Branching like a tree.

• Arched – Bowed or bent in a curve.

• Arcti-spiral – Tightly coiled, as some spiral shells.

• Asphyxiating – Causing suspended animation; apparent death.

• Assimilation – Act of converting one substance into another, as the changing of food-stuffs into living bodies.

• Asymmetrical – Not symmetrical.

• Atrium

• Atrophied – Wasted away.

• Attenuate – Long and slender, as in some shells.

• Auditory – Connected with the hearing.

• Auricled – Eared, or with ear-like appendages.

• Basal – The bottom or lower part.

• Biangulate – With two angles.

• Bicuspid or bicuspidate – Having two cusps.

• Bifid – Having two arms or prongs.

• Bifurcated – Having two branches.

• Bilateral – With two sides.

• Bilobed – With two lobes.

• Blood sinus

• Bulbous – Swollen.

• Calcareous – Composed of carbonate of lime.

• Callosity – A hardened and raised bunch, as the callus on the columella of some shells.

• Callus – A deposit of shelly matter.

• Campanulate – Formed like a bell.

• Canaliculate – Resembling a canal, as the deep sutures in some shells.

• Cancellated – Formed of cross-bars, as the longitudinal and spiral lines which cross in some shells.

• Cardiac pouch – Containing the heart and placed near the umb'ones of the shell.

• Carinate – Keeled. With keel.

• Cartilaginous – Like cartilage.

• Caudal – Tail-like, or with a tail-like appendage.

• Cellular – Made up of cells.

• Cerebral – Pertaining to the brain.

• Channeled – Grooved or formed like a channel.

• Chitinous – Formed of chitin, as the radulas of gastropods.

• Ciliary – By means of cilia.

• Ciliated – Having cilia.

• Cilium (plural cilia) – A lash; used to designate the hairs on the mantle, gills, etc.

• Clavate – Club-shaped.

• Coarctate – Pressed together, narrowed.

• Concave – Excavated, hollowed out.

• Conchiolin

• Conic – Shaped like a cone.

• Connective – A part connecting two other parts, as a muscle connecting two parts of the body, or a nerve connecting two ganglia.

• Constricted – Narrowed.

• Contractile – Capable of being contracted or drawn in, as the tentacle of a snail.

• Convex – Bulged out, as the whorls of some snails.

• Convoluted – Rolled together.

• Cordate – Heart-shaped.

• Corneous – Horn-like, as the opercula of some gastropods.

• Corrugated – Roughened by wrinkles.

• Costate – Having rib-like ridges.

• Crenulate – Wrinkled on the edges.

• Crescentic – Like a crescent.

• Cylindrical – Like a cylinder.

• Decollated – Cut off, as the apex of some shells.

• Decussated – With spiral and longitudinal lines intersecting, as the sculpture of some shells.

• Deflexed – Bent downward, as the last whorl in some snails.

• Dentate – With points or nodules resembling teeth, as the aperture of some snails.

• Denticulate – Finely dentate.

• Depressed – Flattened, as the spire in some snails.

• Dextral – Right-handed.

• Digitiform – Finger-like.

• Dilated – Expanded in all directions, as the aperture of a shell.

• Dimorphism – With two forms or conditions.

• Dioecious – Having the sexes in two individuals, one male and one female.

• Distal – The farthest part from an object.

• Discoidal – Shaped like a flat disk.

• Diverticulum – A pouch or hole, as the pouch containing the radula, or that containing the dart in helices.

• Dormant – In a state of torpor or sleep.

• Dorsal – The back. In gastropods the opposite to the aperture.

• Ectocone – The outer cusp on the teeth of the radula.

• Edentulous – Without teeth or folds, as the aperture in some gastropods.

• Efferent – Carrying out.

• Elliptical – With an oval form.

• Elongated – Drawn out, as the spire of a shell.

• Emarginate – Bluntly notched.

• Encysted – Enclosed in a cyst.

• Entocone – The inner cusp on the teeth of the radula.

• Entire – With even, unbroken edges, as the aperture of some shells.

• Epiphallus – A portion of the vas deferens which becomes modified into a tube-like organ and is continued beyond the apex of the penis; it frequently bears a blind duct, or flagellum.

• Epithelium – All tissues bounding a free surface.

• Equidistant – Equally spaced, as the spiral lines on some snail shells.

• Equilibrating – Balancing equally.

• Eroded – Worn away, as the epidermis on some shells.

• Erosive – Capable of erosion.

• Excavated – Hollowed out, as the columella of some snails.

• Excurrent – Referring to the siphon which carries out the waste matter of the body.

• Exoskeleton – The outer skeleton; all shells are exoskeletons.

• Exserted – Brought out.

• Expanded – Spread out, as the lip of some shells.

• Falcate – Scythe-shaped.

• Fasciculus – A little bundle.

• Flagellate – Animals with a flagellum or lash.

• Flexuous – Formed in a series of curves or turnings, as the columella in some shells.

• Flocculent – Clinging together in bunches.

• Fluviatile – Living in running streams.

• Fusiform – Thick in the middle and tapering at each end.

• Gelatinous – Like jelly, as the eggs of some mollusks.

• Gibbous – Very much rounded, as the whorls in some snails.

• Glandular – Like a gland.

• Globose – Rounded.

• Granulated – Covered with little grains.

• Gravid – A female mollusk with ovaries distended with young.

• Gregarious – Living in colonies.

• Gular – Relating to the windpipe or palate. In mollusks, referring to the innermost part of the aperture.

• Habitat – Locality of a species.

• Hasmolymph – Molluscan blood.

• Heliciform – In form like Helix.

• Hemispherical – Half a sphere.

• Herbivorous – Subsisting upon vegetable food.

• Hermaphrodite – Having the sexes united in the same individual.

• Hibernation – The act of hibernating or going to sleep for the winter months.

• Hirsute – Covered with hairs, as some snails.

• Hispid – Same as hirsute.

• Homologous – Having the same position or value, as the wing of a bird and of a bat.

• Hyaline – Glassy.

• Imperforate – Not perforated or umbilicated.

• Impressed – Marked by a furrow, as the impressed spiral lines on some gastropod shells.

• Incrassate – Thickened.

• Incurved – Leaned or bent over, as the apex in some snails.

• Indented – Notched.

• Inflected – Turned in, as the teeth of some snails.

• Inhalent – Same as incurrent.

• Inoperculate – Without an operculum.

• Intercostate – Between the ribs or ridges.

• Invaginate – One part bending into another, as the tentacles of some land snails.

• Invertible – Capable of being inverted, or drawn in, as the eye-peduncles of a land snail.

• Juvenile

• Keeled – With a more or less sharp projection at the periphery.

• Lamellated – Covered with scales.

• Lamelliform – Having the form of scales.

• Laminated – Consisting of plates or scales laid over each other.

• Lanceolate – Gradually tapering to a point.

• Lateral – Pertaining to the side.

• Latticed – (See decussated.)

• Lobulate – Composed of lobes.

• Longitudinal – The length of a shell.

• Lunate – Shaped like a half moon, as the aperture in some shells.

• Malleated – Appearing as though hammered.

• Manducatory – Relating to the apparatus for masticating food. In snails, the jaws and radula.

• Median – Middle, as the middle tooth on the radula.

• Mesocene – The middle cusp on the teeth of the radula.

• Monoecius – Having the sexes united in the same individual.

• Multifid – Made up of many lobes or projections, as the cusps on some radulae.

• Multispiral – Consisting of many whorls, as some fresh-water snails.

• Nacreous – Pearly or iridescent.

• Nepionic – The second stage of the embryonic shell, as the glochidium.

• Notched – Nicked or indented, as the anterior canal of some gastropods.

• Nucleus – The first part or beginning, as the apex in a gastropod shell.

• Nucleated – Having a nucleus.

• Obconic – In the form of a reversed cone.

• Oblique – Slanting, as the aperture of some shells when not parallel to the longitudinal axis.

• Obovate – Reversed ovate, as some shells when the diameter is greater near the upper than at the lower part.

• Obtuse – Dull or blunt, as the apex of some gastropods.

• Olfactory – Pertaining to the smell.

• Olivaceous – Colored like an olive.

• Organism – An organized being, or living object made up of organs.

• Ovate – Egg-shaped.

• Ovately conic – Shaped like an egg, but with a somewhat conic apex, as some gastropods.

• Oviparous – Bringing forth young in an egg which is hatched after it is laid.

• Ovisac – A pouch in which the eggs or embryos are contained.

• Ovoviviparous – In this case the young are formed in an egg but are hatched inside the parent.

• Pallial lung

• Papillose – Covered with many little bulgings or pimples.

• Parallel – Having the same relative distance in all parts, as when the spiral lines in univalve shells are the same distance apart all the way around.

• Patelliform – Shaped like a flattened-out cone, as an Ancylus.

• Patulous – Open and spreading, as the aperture in some gastropods.

• Paucispiral – Only slightly spiral, as some opercula.

• Pectinate – Like the teeth of a comb, as the gills of some mollusks.

• Pedal – Pertaining to the foot.

• Pedunculated – Supported on a stem or stalk, as the eyes of land snails.

• Pellucid – Transparent or clear, as the shells of some snails; e. g. Vitrea.

• Penultimate – The whorl before the last in gastropod shells.

• Pericardium – The chamber containing the heart.

• Periostracum – The epidermal covering of some shells.

• Pervious – Very narrowly open, as the umbilicus in some snails.

• Phytophagus – Vegetable-feeding.

• Pilose – Covered with hairs.

• Pinnate – Branched like a feather, as the gills of some mollusks.

• Plaited – Folded.

• Planispiral shell

• Planorboid – Flat and orb-like, as some snails.

• Pleurae – Relating to the side of a body.

• Plexus – A network of vessels, as the form of the lungs in snails.

• Plicated – Made up of folds.

• Plumose – Resembling plumes.

• Polygonal – Having many angles.

• Porcellanous – Like porcelain.

• Prismatic – Like a prism.

• Prodissoconch – The embryonic shell.

• Protoconch – The embryonic shell.

• Protract – To push out.

• Protractor pedis – The foot protractor muscle.

• Protrusile – Capable of being pushed out.

• Proximal – The nearest end of an object.

• Pulsation – A throb, as the throbbing of the heart.

• Pupiform – Like a pupa; one of the stages in the development of an insect.

• Pustulate – Covered with pustules or little pimples.

• Pustulose – Same as pustulate.

• Pyramidal – Having the form of a pyramid.

• Pyriform – Shaped like a pear.

• Reflected – Bent backward, as the lip in some snails.

• Reflexed – Same as Reflected.

• Renal – Relating to the kidneys.

• Reticulated – Resembling a network, as when the longitudinal and spiral lines cross in a snail.

• Retractile – Capable of being drawn in, as the eye peduncles in land snails.

• Retractor pedis – Foot retractor muscle.

• Revolving lines – Spiral lines on a snail shell which run parallel with the sutures.

• Rhombic – Having four sides, the angles being oblique.

• Rhomboid – Four-sided, but two of the sides being longer than the others.

• Rimate – Provided with a very small hole or crack, as some snails in which the umbilicus is very narrowly open.

• Roundly lunate – Rounder than lunate (which see).

• Rostriform – In the form of a rostrum.

• Rudimentary – Not fully formed; imperfect.

• Rugose – Rough or wrinkled, as parts of some shells.

• Sacculated – Somewhat like a sac, or composed of sac-like parts.

• Scalar – Resembling a ladder.

• Secreted – Produced or deposited from the blood or glands, as the shell material in mollusks.

• Semicircular – Half round or circular, as the aperture in some snails.

• Semidentate – Half toothed, as the parietal wall in some land snails.

• Semielliptic – Half elliptical.

• Semiglobose – Half, or not quite globose.

• Semilunate – Half lunate.

• Semioval – Half, or not quite oval.

• Serrated – Notched, like the teeth on a saw.

• Serriform – In the form of series.

• Sessile – Attached without a stem, as the eyes in some water snails.

• Shouldered – Ridged, as the whorls in some snails.

• Sigmoid – Shaped like the letter S.

• Siliceous – Made up of silex.

• Sinistral – Having the aperture on the left side.

• Sinusigerid – with a diagonally cancellate (structure)

• Sinuous – Curved in and out, as the edge of some bivalves and the lips of some snails.

• Siphonal canal – semi-tubular extension of the aperture of the shell through which the siphon is extended when the animal is active

• Spatulate – In the form of a spatula, a flat-bladed instrument used by druggists in pulverizing drugs.

• Spherical – Shaped like a sphere.

• Spiral – Wound about a central cavity, as the whorls of snails.

• Striated – Marked by lines or striae.

• Subangulated – Moderately angled.

• Subcarinated – Moderately carinated.

• Subcentral – Not quite in the center.

• Subcircular – Not quite circular.

• Subconical – Moderately conical.

• Subcylindrical – Moderately cylindrical.

• Subequal – Not quite equal.

• Subexcavated – A little excavated.

• Subfusiform – Moderately fusiform.

• Subglobose – Moderately globose.

• Subglobular – Moderately globular.

• Subhyaline – Moderately glassy.

• Subimperforate – Not much perforated.

• Suboblong – Moderately oblong.

• Subobsolete – Almost disappearing.

• Subovate – Nearly ovate.

• Subparallel – Almost parallel.

• Subperforated – Almost perforated.

• Subquadrate – Almost four-sided.

• Subreflected – Moderately turned back.

• Subrotund – Moderately round.

• Subspiral – Moderately spiral.

• Subtriangulate – Moderately or almost triangular.

• Subtrigonal – Moderately three-angled.

• Subtruncate – Moderately cut off.

• Subumbilicated – Moderately umbilicated.

• Sulcated – Grooved.

• Sulcus – A longitudinal furrow.

• Superanal – Above the anus.

• Supra-peripheral – Above the periphery.

• Symmetrical – Alike on both sides or uniform in all parts.

• Terrestrial – Living on the land.

• Testaceous – Composed of shelly matter.

• Torsion – A twisting around.

• Tortuous – Twisted or winding.

• Torpid – Half unconscious or asleep, as a snail during hibernation.

• Translucent – Not quite transparent; light is seen through the thin edges of the object.

• Transparent – Objects may be seen through the substance.

• Transverse – Referring to the form of a shell when it is wider than high.

• Tricuspidate – Having three cusps.

• Trifid – Having three branches.

• Trigonal – Having three angles.

• Trilobate – Having three lobes.

• Tripartite – Divided into three parts, as the foot of some snails.

• Truncate – Having the end cut off squarely.

• Tuberculate – Covered with tubercles or rounded knobs.

• Turbinate – Having the form of a top.

• Turriculated – Having the form of a tower.

• Turreted – Having the form of a tower.

• Umbilicated – Having an opening in the base of the shell.

• Undulated – Having undulations or waves.

• Univalve – Having the shell composed of a single piece, as a snail.

• Varicose – Swollen or enlarged.

• Vascular – Containing or made up of blood vessels.

• Vermiform – Formed like a worm.

• Ventral – The lower border or side.

• Ventricose – Swollen or inflated on the ventral side.

• Vibratile – Moving from side to side.

• Vitreous – Resembling glass, as some snails.