Canariella hispidula 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 small, air-breathing land snail

Snail

Snail is a common name applied to most of the members of the molluscan class Gastropoda that have coiled shells in the adult stage. When the word is used in its most general sense, it includes sea snails, land snails and freshwater snails. The word snail without any qualifier is however more often...

s, 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...

 pulmonate gastropod mollusks in the family Hygromiidae

Hygromiidae

Hygromiidae is a taxonomic family of small to medium-sized air-breathing land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusks in the superfamily Helicoidea.-Anatomy:...

, the hairy snails and their allies.

Canariella hispidula is the type species

Type species

In biological nomenclature, a type species is both a concept and a practical system which is used in the classification and nomenclature of animals and plants. The value of a "type species" lies in the fact that it makes clear what is meant by a particular genus name. A type species is the species...

 of the genus Canariella.

Distribution

This species is endemic to the Canary Islands, specifically to Tenerife

Tenerife

Tenerife is the largest and most populous island of the seven Canary Islands, it is also the most populated island of Spain, with a land area of 2,034.38 km² and 906,854 inhabitants, 43% of the total population of the Canary Islands. About five million tourists visit Tenerife each year, the...

.

Shell description

The shell

Gastropod shell

The gastropod shell is a shell which is part of the body of a gastropod or snail, one kind of mollusc. The gastropod shell is an external skeleton or exoskeleton, which serves not only for muscle attachment, but also for protection from predators and from mechanical damage...

 is moderately umbilicated, conoid, solid, light rufous above, paler below, especially towards the umbilicus. Nepionic whorls are finely granulated, the remainder closely covered with fine curved riblets, and densely infested with granules arranged in quincunx

Quincunx

A quincunx is a geometric pattern consisting of five points arranged in a cross, that is five coplanar points, four of them forming a square or rectangle and a fifth at its center...

 above, but somewhat irregularly below. The spire

Spire (mollusc)

A spire is a descriptive term for part of the coiled shell of mollusks. The word is a convenient aid in describing shells, but it does not refer to a very precise part of shell anatomy: the spire consists of all of the whorls except for the body whorl...

 is pyramidal. Apex is acute. Suture is linear. The shell has five whorls

Whorl (mollusc)

A whorl is a single, complete 360° revolution or turn in the spiral growth of a mollusc shell. A spiral configuration of the shell is found in of numerous gastropods, but it is also found in shelled cephalopods including Nautilus, Spirula and the large extinct subclass of cephalopods known as the...

, that are slightly flattened above, convex below, obtusely carinated at the periphery, and obtusely angulated round the umbilicus, increasing regularlv, the last nearly twice as wide as the penultimate, shortly deflexed in front, and slightly constricted behind the peristome.

The aperture

Aperture (mollusc)

The aperture is an opening in certain kinds of mollusc shells: it is the main opening of the shell, where part of the body of the animal emerges for locomotion, feeding, etc....

is semi-rotundate, oblique, margins approaching, united by a thin callus on the parietal wall. The peristome is scarcely thickened, reflexed, whitish, upper margin slightly curved, basal rounded, columellar ascending, and slightly dilated. Umbilicus moderately wide and deep, showing a portion of the penultimate whorl.

The width of the shell is 10.5–12 mm. The height of the shell is 6 mm.