Bathanalia howesi 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 tropical 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...

, 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 Paludomidae

Paludomidae

Paludomidae, common name paludomids, is a family of freshwater snails, gastropod molluscs in the clade Sorbeoconcha.- Taxonomy :The following three subfamilies have been recognized in the taxonomy of Bouchet & Rocroi :...

.

Bathanalia howesi 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 Bathanalia.

Distribution

This species is found in Lake Tanganyika

Lake Tanganyika

Lake Tanganyika is an African Great Lake. It is estimated to be the second largest freshwater lake in the world by volume, and the second deepest, after Lake Baikal in Siberia; it is also the world's longest freshwater lake...

 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Democratic Republic of the Congo

The Democratic Republic of the Congo is a state located in Central Africa. It is the second largest country in Africa by area and the eleventh largest in the world...

, Tanzania and Zambia.

Type locality is southern shore near Mleroes, Lake Tanganyika in depth of 243 m (800 feet).

Description

The shell of Bathanalia howesi is recognizable with spines.

The width of the shell is 17 mm. The height of the shell is 25 mm.

Ecology

It was found in depths from 45 m. John Edmund Sharrock Moore have thought that this species can live up to depth 300 m, but Leloup (1953) mentioned maximum depth of 150-200 m.

Further reading

• Moore J. E. S. (1898). "Descriptions of the genera Bathanalia and Bythoceras, from Lake Tanganyika". Proceedings of the Malacological Society of London 3 : 92-93.