Alcadia conuloides is a species

Species

In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...

 of tropical land snail

Land snail

A land snail is any of the many species of snail that live on land, as opposed to those that live in salt water and fresh water. Land snails are terrestrial gastropod mollusks that have shells, It is not always an easy matter to say which species are terrestrial, because some are more or less...

 with an operculum

Operculum (gastropod)

The operculum, meaning little lid, is a corneous or calcareous anatomical structure which exists in many groups of sea snails and freshwater snails, and also in a few groups of land snails...

, a terrestrial

Terrestrial animal

Terrestrial animals are animals that live predominantly or entirely on land , as compared with aquatic animals, which live predominantly or entirely in the water , or amphibians, which rely on a combination of aquatic and terrestrial habitats...

 gastropod mollusk in the family Helicinidae

Helicinidae

Helicinidae is a family of small tropical land snails which have an operculum. They are terrestrial operculate gastropod mollusks in the superfamily Helicinoidea....

.

Taxonomy

Robert John Lechmere Guppy

Robert John Lechmere Guppy

Robert John Lechmere Guppy was a British-born naturalist after whom the guppy is named...

 (1895) considered this species synonymous with the taxon Schrammia schrammia (Crosse, 1872) from Guadeloupe

Guadeloupe

Guadeloupe is an archipelago located in the Leeward Islands, in the Lesser Antilles, with a land area of 1,628 square kilometres and a population of 400,000. It is the first overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department. As with the other overseas departments, Guadeloupe...

, but that species is larger and higher-spired, and therefore Guppy’s name was resurrected. Horace Burrington Baker (1927) suggested that Guppy’s species probably belongs in the genus Alcadia, subgenus Idesa. Until the status of Schrammia and its two species can be resolved, we follow the last published work, that of Baker (1927).

Distribution

This species is endemic to the West Indian island of Dominica.

Ecology

This small species lives on wet leaves, being particularly active after rainfall, and on damp leaf litter. It is believed to feed on encrusting algae.