Neritina granosa 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 freshwater snail

Freshwater snail

A freshwater snail is one kind of freshwater mollusc, the other kind being freshwater clams and mussels, i.e. freshwater bivalves. Specifically a freshwater snail is a gastropod that lives in a watery non-marine habitat. The majority of freshwater gastropods have a shell, with very few exceptions....

 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...

, an aquatic

Aquatic animal

An aquatic animal is an animal, either vertebrate or invertebrate, which lives in water for most or all of its life. It may breathe air or extract its oxygen from that dissolved in water through specialised organs called gills, or directly through its skin. Natural environments and the animals that...

 gastropod mollusk in the family Neritidae

Neritidae

Neritidae, common name the nerites, is a taxonomic family of small to medium-sized saltwater and freshwater snails which have a gill and a distinctive operculum, marine, brackish water and freshwater gastropod mollusks in the order Neritoida....

, the nerites.

Distribution

This species of nerite is endemic in Hawaii: Maui

Maui

The island of Maui is the second-largest of the Hawaiian Islands at and is the 17th largest island in the United States. Maui is part of the state of Hawaii and is the largest of Maui County's four islands, bigger than Lānai, Kahoolawe, and Molokai. In 2010, Maui had a population of 144,444,...

.

Ecology

Neritina granosa lives in streams. This species has marine larvae that migrate into and up streams after a period of oceanic dispersal. Most likely, the planktonic larvae of this neritid snail disperse across the oceanic expanses that separate the main Hawaiian Islands, and thus it can colonize streams on any or all of these islands.

Further reading

• Ford J. I. (1979). "Biology of a Hawaiian fluvial gastropod Neritina granosa Sowerby (Prosobranchia: Neritidae)". M.S. Thesis, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii: 94 pp.
• Hau S., Way C. M. & Burky A. J. (1992). "Life cycle of the endemic limpet Neritina granosa (Sowerby), in Palauhulu Stream, Maui. 43rd Annual Meeting of American Institute of Biological Sciences. Ecological Society of America, 9–13 August, Honolulu, Hawaii (abstract).
• Hodges M. H.-D. (July 1992). "Population biology and genetics of the endemic Hawaiian stream gastropod Neritina granosa (Prosobranchia: Neritidae): implications for conservation". Honors Thesis, Wildlife Biology Program University of Montana, Missoula, Montana.