Succinea approximans 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 air-breathing 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...

, 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...

 pulmonate gastropod mollusc in the family

Family (biology)

In biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus. As for the other well-known ranks, there is the option of an immediately lower rank, indicated by the...

 Succineidae

Succineidae

Succineidae are a family of small to medium-sized, air-breathing, land snails , terrestrial pulmonate gastropod molluscs. They are commonly called amber snails because their thin fragile shells are translucent and amber-colored...

, the amber snails.

Distribution

The type locality is in Puerto Rico. Robert James Shuttleworth mentioned six localities: "prope San Juan

San Juan, Puerto Rico

San Juan , officially Municipio de la Ciudad Capital San Juan Bautista , is the capital and most populous municipality in Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States. As of the 2010 census, it had a population of 395,326 making it the 46th-largest city under the jurisdiction of...

, Fajardo, Ceiba

Ceiba, Puerto Rico

Ceiba is a small town in northeast Puerto Rico. It is named after the famous Ceiba tree. Ceiba is located in the east coast of the island, bordering the Atlantic Ocean, north of Naguabo, south of Fajardo, and east of Río Grande. It is located about one hour's driving distance from San Juan...

, Humacao, Luquillo et ad Rio Blanco".

Robinson et al. (2009) reviewed that it has not been reported from intermediate islands and they considered reports from Thomas B. Bland (1869) and George French Angas

George French Angas

George French Angas , was an English explorer, naturalist and painter.He was born in Newcastle upon Tyne, England, the eldest son of George Fife Angas, prominent in the establishment of the new colony of South Australia. Despite showing remarkable talent in drawing, he was placed in a London...

 (1884) as dubious.

Other reported distribution of Succinea approximans include:

• Grenada
  Grenada
  Grenada is an island country and Commonwealth Realm consisting of the island of Grenada and six smaller islands at the southern end of the Grenadines in the southeastern Caribbean Sea...
  
   - widely distributed
• Lesser Antilles
  Lesser Antilles
  The Lesser Antilles are a long, partly volcanic island arc in the Western Hemisphere. Most of its islands form the eastern boundary of the Caribbean Sea with the Atlantic Ocean, with the remainder located in the southern Caribbean just north of South America...
  
  , but not in Dominica
  Dominica
  Dominica , officially the Commonwealth of Dominica, is an island nation in the Lesser Antilles region of the Caribbean Sea, south-southeast of Guadeloupe and northwest of Martinique. Its size is and the highest point in the country is Morne Diablotins, which has an elevation of . The Commonwealth...
  
  
• Saint Lucia
  Saint Lucia
  Saint Lucia is an island country in the eastern Caribbean Sea on the boundary with the Atlantic Ocean. Part of the Lesser Antilles, it is located north/northeast of the island of Saint Vincent, northwest of Barbados and south of Martinique. It covers a land area of 620 km2 and has an...
  
  

Description

The dimensions of 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...

of type specimen are as follows: the height of the shell is 12 mm. The width of the shell is 7 mm. The height of the aperture is 9 mm.

The height of the shell of this species in Grenada is 10 mm.

Ecology

Habitats of Succinea approximans ranges from relatively dry ones to wet ones. Succinea approximans lives among leaf litter in Grenada.

External links

• http://www.animalbase.uni-goettingen.de/zooweb/servlet/AnimalBase/home/speciestaxon?id=1163
• distribution map