The narrow-mouthed whorl snail, scientific name Vertigo angustior, 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 minute 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...

, 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 mollusk or micromollusk

Micromollusk

A micromollusk is a descriptive term for a shelled mollusk which is extremely small, even at full adult size. The word is usually, but not exclusively, applied to marine mollusks, although in addition, numerous species of land snails and freshwater mollusks also reach adult size at very small...

 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...

 Vertiginidae

Vertiginidae

Vertiginidae is a family of minute, air-breathing land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod molluscs or micromollusks in the superfamily Pupilloidea.- Distribution :...

.

Distribution

• IUCN red list
  IUCN Red List
  The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species , founded in 1963, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biological species. The International Union for Conservation of Nature is the world's main authority on the conservation status of species...
  
   - conservation dependent
  Conservation Dependent
  Conservation Dependent was an IUCN category assigned to species or lower taxa which were dependent on conservation efforts to prevent the taxon becoming threatened with extinction...
  
  
• It is mentioned in Annex II of the European Union's
  European Union
  The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
  
   Habitats Directive.

The species occurs in many countries in Europe and in Asia:

Western Europe:

• Great Britain in List of endangered species in the British Isles (Ireland, United Kingdom). Endangered in Great Britain.
• Ireland Conseravtion status: Vulnerable (VU)
• Belgium
• France
• Liechtenstein
• Netherlands
• Switzerland

Central Europe:

• Austria
• Czech Republic - vulnerable (VU). It's Conservation status in the Czech Republic in 2004-2006 is bad (U2) in pannonian area and favourable (FV) in continental area in report for European commission
  European Commission
  The European Commission is the executive body of the European Union. The body is responsible for proposing legislation, implementing decisions, upholding the Union's treaties and the general day-to-day running of the Union....
  
   in accordance with Habitats Directive.
• Germany
• Hungary
• Poland - endangered
• Slovakia
• Slovenia

Northern Europe: Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden

Eastern Europe: Belarus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Russian Federation, Ukraine

Southern Europe: Italy, Romania

Asia: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia.

Further reading

• Zofia Książkiewicz. January 2008. The narrow-mouthed whorl snail Vertigo angustior (Pulmonata: Gastropoda: Vertiginidae) - distribution and habitat disturbance in northwestern Poland. Tentacle 16. 5-6.
• The narrow-mouthed whorl snail (Vertigo angustior) (1014) Conservation Status Assessment Report.

External links

• photo of Vertigo angustior
• http://www.staff.amu.edu.pl/~polmal/smp/v115.htm