Ariophanta interrupta
Encyclopedia
Ariophanta interrupta 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
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 in the family Ariophantidae
Ariophantidae
Ariophantidae is a taxonomic family of air-breathing land snails and semi-slugs, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusks in the superfamily Helicarionoidea .- Distribution :...

.

The visible external soft parts of the animal are pinkish grey in color.

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...

 of this species is left-handed (sinistral).

The shell is flatly convex above, rather coarsely, obliquely, plicately striated and decussated with fine impressed lines, the decussation is sometimes obsolete, more tumid and smoother beneath. The shell color is brownish horny, darker below the periphery, and gradually becoming paler
again beneath. The shell has 4½-5 whorls, convex above, the last augulate at the periphery.

The aperture is roundly lunate. The peristome is thin.

The width of the shell is 22–32 mm. The height is 15-16-17 mm.

Distribution

This species lives in India (Bengal
Bengal
Bengal is a historical and geographical region in the northeast region of the Indian Subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal. Today, it is mainly divided between the sovereign land of People's Republic of Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal, although some regions of the previous...

, Behar
Behar
Behar, BeHar, Be-har, or B’har is the 32nd weekly Torah portion in the annual Jewish cycle of Torah reading and the ninth in the book of Leviticus...

, Orissa
Orissa
Orissa , officially Odisha since Nov 2011, is a state of India, located on the east coast of India, by the Bay of Bengal. It is the modern name of the ancient nation of Kalinga, which was invaded by the Maurya Emperor Ashoka in 261 BC. The modern state of Orissa was established on 1 April...

, Ganjam
Ganjam
Ganjam is a town and a notified area committee in Ganjam district in the state of Orissa, India.-Geography:Ganjam is located at . It has an average elevation of 3 metres .-Demographics:...

, Golconda Hills, Vizagapatam, Calcutta, Pareshnath), Himalayas
Himalayas
The Himalaya Range or Himalaya Mountains Sanskrit: Devanagari: हिमालय, literally "abode of snow"), usually called the Himalayas or Himalaya for short, is a mountain range in Asia, separating the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau...

and Ganges region.
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