Glossary of gastropod terms

The following is a glossary of common English language and scientific terms used in the description of gastropods.


 * Abapical – away from the apex of a shell toward the base


 * Acephalous – Headless.


 * Acinose – Full of small bulgings; resembling the kernel in a nut.


 * Aculeate – Very sharply pointed, as the teeth on the radula of some snails.


 * Acuminate – gradually tapering to a point, as the spire of some shells.


 * Acute – Sharp or pointed, as the spire of a shell, or the lip of a shell.


 * Adapical  – toward the apex of a shell (<--> abapical)


 * Admedian – Next to the central object, as the lateral teeth on the lingual membrane.


 * Adpressed – with overlapping whorls or with a suture tightly pressed to the previous whorl (preferred to the term appressed)


 * Afferent – To bring in; when relating to a vessel or duct, indicating that it brings in its contents.


 * Amoeboid – Shaped like an amoeba, a small animalcule.


 * Amorphous – Without distinct form.


 * Amphibious – Inhabiting both land and water.


 * Amphidetic – With the ligament on both sides of the umbones.


 * Anal canal – Tubular of gutter-like opening in the shell of a gastropod through which excrements are expelled (see also: siphonal canal)


 * Analogue – A likeness between two objects when otherwise they are totally different, as the wing of a bird and the wing of a butterfly.


 * Anastomosing – Coming together.


 * Annular – Made up of rings.


 * Anterior – The front or fore end.


 * Aquatic – Inhabiting the water.


 * Arborescent – Branching like a tree.


 * Arched – Bowed or bent in a curve.


 * Arcti-spiral – Tightly coiled, as some spiral shells.


 * Asphyxiating – Causing suspended animation; apparent death.


 * Assimilation – Act of converting one substance into another, as the changing of food-stuffs into living bodies.


 * Asymmetrical – Not symmetrical.


 * Atrium


 * Atrophied – Wasted away.


 * Attenuate – Long and slender, as in some shells.


 * Auditory – Connected with the hearing.


 * Auricled – Eared, or with ear-like appendages.


 * Basal – The bottom or lower part.


 * Biangulate – With two angles.


 * Bicuspid or bicuspidate – Having two cusps.


 * Bifid – Having two arms or prongs.


 * Bifurcated – Having two branches.


 * Bilateral – With two sides.


 * Bilobed – With two lobes.


 * Blood sinus


 * Bulbous – Swollen.


 * Calcareous – Composed of carbonate of lime.


 * Callosity – A hardened and raised bunch, as the callus on the columella of some shells.


 * Callus – A deposit of shelly matter.


 * Campanulate – Formed like a bell.


 * Canaliculate – Resembling a canal, as the deep sutures in some shells.


 * Cancellated – Formed of cross-bars, as the longitudinal and spiral lines which cross in some shells.


 * Cardiac pouch – Containing the heart and placed near the umb'ones of the shell.


 * Carinate – Keeled. With keel.


 * Cartilaginous – Like cartilage.


 * Caudal – Tail-like, or with a tail-like appendage.


 * Cellular – Made up of cells.


 * Cerebral – Pertaining to the brain.


 * Channeled – Grooved or formed like a channel.


 * Chitinous – Formed of chitin, as the radulas of gastropods.


 * Ciliary – By means of cilia.


 * Ciliated – Having cilia.


 * Cilium (plural cilia) – A lash; used to designate the hairs on the mantle, gills, etc.


 * Clavate – Club-shaped.


 * Coarctate – Pressed together, narrowed.


 * Concave – Excavated, hollowed out.


 * Conchiolin


 * Conic – Shaped like a cone.


 * Connective – A part connecting two other parts, as a muscle connecting two parts of the body, or a nerve connecting two ganglia.


 * Constricted – Narrowed.


 * Contractile – Capable of being contracted or drawn in, as the tentacle of a snail.


 * Convex – Bulged out, as the whorls of some snails.


 * Convoluted – Rolled together.


 * Cordate – Heart-shaped.


 * Corneous – Horn-like, as the opercula of some gastropods.


 * Corrugated – Roughened by wrinkles.


 * Costate – Having rib-like ridges.


 * Crenulate – Wrinkled on the edges.


 * Crescentic – Like a crescent.


 * Cylindrical – Like a cylinder.


 * Decollated – Cut off, as the apex of some shells.


 * Decussated – With spiral and longitudinal lines intersecting, as the sculpture of some shells.


 * Deflexed – Bent downward, as the last whorl in some snails.


 * Dentate – With points or nodules resembling teeth, as the aperture of some snails.


 * Denticulate – Finely dentate.


 * Depressed – Flattened, as the spire in some snails.


 * Dextral – Right-handed.


 * Digitiform – Finger-like.


 * Dilated – Expanded in all directions, as the aperture of a shell.


 * Dimorphism – With two forms or conditions.


 * Dioecious – Having the sexes in two individuals, one male and one female.


 * Distal – The farthest part from an object.


 * Discoidal – Shaped like a flat disk.


 * Diverticulum – A pouch or hole, as the pouch containing the radula, or that containing the dart in helices.


 * Dormant – In a state of torpor or sleep.


 * Dorsal – The back. In gastropods the opposite to the aperture.


 * Ectocone – The outer cusp on the teeth of the radula.


 * Edentulous – Without teeth or folds, as the aperture in some gastropods.


 * Efferent – Carrying out.


 * Elliptical – With an oval form.


 * Elongated – Drawn out, as the spire of a shell.


 * Emarginate – Bluntly notched.


 * Encysted – Enclosed in a cyst.


 * Entocone – The inner cusp on the teeth of the radula.


 * Entire – With even, unbroken edges, as the aperture of some shells.


 * Epiphallus – A portion of the vas deferens which becomes modified into a tube-like organ and is continued beyond the apex of the penis; it frequently bears a blind duct, or flagellum.


 * Epithelium – All tissues bounding a free surface.


 * Equidistant – Equally spaced, as the spiral lines on some snail shells.


 * Equilibrating – Balancing equally.


 * Eroded – Worn away, as the epidermis on some shells.


 * Erosive – Capable of erosion.


 * Excavated – Hollowed out, as the columella of some snails.


 * Excurrent – Referring to the siphon which carries out the waste matter of the body.


 * Exoskeleton – The outer skeleton; all shells are exoskeletons.


 * Exserted – Brought out.


 * Expanded – Spread out, as the lip of some shells.


 * Falcate – Scythe-shaped.


 * Fasciculus – A little bundle.


 * Flagellate – Animals with a flagellum or lash.


 * Flexuous – Formed in a series of curves or turnings, as the columella in some shells.


 * Flocculent – Clinging together in bunches.


 * Fluviatile – Living in running streams.


 * Fusiform – Thick in the middle and tapering at each end.


 * Gelatinous – Like jelly, as the eggs of some mollusks.


 * Gibbous – Very much rounded, as the whorls in some snails.


 * Glandular – Like a gland.


 * Globose – Rounded.


 * Granulated – Covered with little grains.


 * Gravid – A female mollusk with ovaries distended with young.


 * Gregarious – Living in colonies.


 * Gular – Relating to the windpipe or palate. In mollusks, referring to the innermost part of the aperture.


 * Habitat – Locality of a species.


 * Hasmolymph – Molluscan blood.


 * Heliciform – In form like Helix.


 * Hemispherical – Half a sphere.


 * Herbivorous – Subsisting upon vegetable food.


 * Hermaphrodite – Having the sexes united in the same individual.


 * Hibernation – The act of hibernating or going to sleep for the winter months.


 * Hirsute – Covered with hairs, as some snails.


 * Hispid – Same as hirsute.


 * Homologous – Having the same position or value, as the wing of a bird and of a bat.


 * Hyaline – Glassy.


 * Imperforate – Not perforated or umbilicated.


 * Impressed – Marked by a furrow, as the impressed spiral lines on some gastropod shells.


 * Incrassate – Thickened.


 * Incurved – Leaned or bent over, as the apex in some snails.


 * Indented – Notched.


 * Inflected – Turned in, as the teeth of some snails.


 * Inhalent – Same as incurrent.


 * Inoperculate – Without an operculum.


 * Intercostate – Between the ribs or ridges.


 * Invaginate – One part bending into another, as the tentacles of some land snails.


 * Invertible – Capable of being inverted, or drawn in, as the eye-peduncles of a land snail.


 * Juvenile


 * Keeled – With a more or less sharp projection at the periphery.


 * Lamellated – Covered with scales.


 * Lamelliform – Having the form of scales.


 * Laminated – Consisting of plates or scales laid over each other.


 * Lanceolate – Gradually tapering to a point.


 * Lateral – Pertaining to the side.


 * Latticed – (See decussated.)


 * Lobulate – Composed of lobes.


 * Longitudinal – The length of a shell.


 * Lunate – Shaped like a half moon, as the aperture in some shells.


 * Malleated – Appearing as though hammered.


 * Manducatory – Relating to the apparatus for masticating food. In snails, the jaws and radula.


 * Median – Middle, as the middle tooth on the radula.


 * Mesocene – The middle cusp on the teeth of the radula.


 * Monoecius – Having the sexes united in the same individual.


 * Multifid – Made up of many lobes or projections, as the cusps on some radulae.


 * Multispiral – Consisting of many whorls, as some fresh-water snails.


 * Nacreous – Pearly or iridescent.


 * Nepionic – The second stage of the embryonic shell, as the glochidium.


 * Notched – Nicked or indented, as the anterior canal of some gastropods.


 * Nucleus – The first part or beginning, as the apex in a gastropod shell.


 * Nucleated – Having a nucleus.


 * Obconic – In the form of a reversed cone.


 * Oblique – Slanting, as the aperture of some shells when not parallel to the longitudinal axis.


 * Obovate – Reversed ovate, as some shells when the diameter is greater near the upper than at the lower part.


 * Obtuse – Dull or blunt, as the apex of some gastropods.


 * Olfactory – Pertaining to the smell.


 * Olivaceous – Colored like an olive.


 * Organism – An organized being, or living object made up of organs.


 * Ovate – Egg-shaped.


 * Ovately conic – Shaped like an egg, but with a somewhat conic apex, as some gastropods.


 * Oviparous – Bringing forth young in an egg which is hatched after it is laid.


 * Ovisac – A pouch in which the eggs or embryos are contained.


 * Ovoviviparous – In this case the young are formed in an egg but are hatched inside the parent.


 * Pallial lung


 * Papillose – Covered with many little bulgings or pimples.


 * Parallel – Having the same relative distance in all parts, as when the spiral lines in univalve shells are the same distance apart all the way around.


 * Patelliform – Shaped like a flattened-out cone, as an Ancylus.


 * Patulous – Open and spreading, as the aperture in some gastropods.


 * Paucispiral – Only slightly spiral, as some opercula.


 * Pectinate – Like the teeth of a comb, as the gills of some mollusks.


 * Pedal – Pertaining to the foot.


 * Pedunculated – Supported on a stem or stalk, as the eyes of land snails.


 * Pellucid – Transparent or clear, as the shells of some snails; e. g. Vitrea.


 * Penultimate – The whorl before the last in gastropod shells.


 * Pericardium – The chamber containing the heart.


 * Periostracum – The epidermal covering of some shells.


 * Pervious – Very narrowly open, as the umbilicus in some snails.


 * Phytophagus – Vegetable-feeding.


 * Pilose – Covered with hairs.


 * Pinnate – Branched like a feather, as the gills of some mollusks.


 * Plaited – Folded.


 * Planispiral shell


 * Planorboid – Flat and orb-like, as some snails.


 * Pleurae – Relating to the side of a body.


 * Plexus – A network of vessels, as the form of the lungs in snails.


 * Plicated – Made up of folds.


 * Plumose – Resembling plumes.


 * Polygonal – Having many angles.


 * Porcellanous – Like porcelain.


 * Prismatic – Like a prism.


 * Prodissoconch – The embryonic shell.


 * Protoconch – The embryonic shell.


 * Protract – To push out.


 * Protractor pedis – The foot protractor muscle.


 * Protrusile – Capable of being pushed out.


 * Proximal – The nearest end of an object.


 * Pulsation – A throb, as the throbbing of the heart.


 * Pupiform – Like a pupa; one of the stages in the development of an insect.


 * Pustulate – Covered with pustules or little pimples.


 * Pustulose – Same as pustulate.


 * Pyramidal – Having the form of a pyramid.


 * Pyriform – Shaped like a pear.


 * Reflected – Bent backward, as the lip in some snails.


 * Reflexed – Same as Reflected.


 * Renal – Relating to the kidneys.


 * Reticulated – Resembling a network, as when the longitudinal and spiral lines cross in a snail.


 * Retractile – Capable of being drawn in, as the eye peduncles in land snails.


 * Retractor pedis – Foot retractor muscle.


 * Revolving lines – Spiral lines on a snail shell which run parallel with the sutures.


 * Rhombic – Having four sides, the angles being oblique.


 * Rhomboid – Four-sided, but two of the sides being longer than the others.


 * Rimate – Provided with a very small hole or crack, as some snails in which the umbilicus is very narrowly open.


 * Roundly lunate – Rounder than lunate (which see).


 * Rostriform – In the form of a rostrum.


 * Rudimentary – Not fully formed; imperfect.


 * Rugose – Rough or wrinkled, as parts of some shells.


 * Sacculated – Somewhat like a sac, or composed of sac-like parts.


 * Scalar – Resembling a ladder.


 * Secreted – Produced or deposited from the blood or glands, as the shell material in mollusks.


 * Semicircular – Half round or circular, as the aperture in some snails.


 * Semidentate – Half toothed, as the parietal wall in some land snails.


 * Semielliptic – Half elliptical.


 * Semiglobose – Half, or not quite globose.


 * Semilunate – Half lunate.


 * Semioval – Half, or not quite oval.


 * Serrated – Notched, like the teeth on a saw.


 * Serriform – In the form of series.


 * Sessile – Attached without a stem, as the eyes in some water snails.


 * Shouldered – Ridged, as the whorls in some snails.


 * Sigmoid – Shaped like the letter S.


 * Siliceous – Made up of silex.


 * Sinistral – Having the aperture on the left side.


 * Sinusigerid – with a diagonally cancellate (structure)


 * Sinuous – Curved in and out, as the edge of some bivalves and the lips of some snails.


 * Siphonal canal – semi-tubular extension of the aperture of the shell through which the siphon is extended when the animal is active


 * Spatulate – In the form of a spatula, a flat-bladed instrument used by druggists in pulverizing drugs.


 * Spherical – Shaped like a sphere.


 * Spiral – Wound about a central cavity, as the whorls of snails.


 * Striated – Marked by lines or striae.


 * Subangulated – Moderately angled.


 * Subcarinated – Moderately carinated.


 * Subcentral – Not quite in the center.


 * Subcircular – Not quite circular.


 * Subconical – Moderately conical.


 * Subcylindrical – Moderately cylindrical.


 * Subequal – Not quite equal.


 * Subexcavated – A little excavated.


 * Subfusiform – Moderately fusiform.


 * Subglobose – Moderately globose.


 * Subglobular – Moderately globular.


 * Subhyaline – Moderately glassy.


 * Subimperforate – Not much perforated.


 * Suboblong – Moderately oblong.


 * Subobsolete – Almost disappearing.


 * Subovate – Nearly ovate.


 * Subparallel – Almost parallel.


 * Subperforated – Almost perforated.


 * Subquadrate – Almost four-sided.


 * Subreflected – Moderately turned back.


 * Subrotund – Moderately round.


 * Subspiral – Moderately spiral.


 * Subtriangulate – Moderately or almost triangular.


 * Subtrigonal – Moderately three-angled.


 * Subtruncate – Moderately cut off.


 * Subumbilicated – Moderately umbilicated.


 * Sulcated – Grooved.


 * Sulcus – A longitudinal furrow.


 * Superanal – Above the anus.


 * Supra-peripheral – Above the periphery.


 * Symmetrical – Alike on both sides or uniform in all parts.


 * Terrestrial – Living on the land.


 * Testaceous – Composed of shelly matter.


 * Torsion – A twisting around.


 * Tortuous – Twisted or winding.


 * Torpid – Half unconscious or asleep, as a snail during hibernation.


 * Translucent – Not quite transparent; light is seen through the thin edges of the object.


 * Transparent – Objects may be seen through the substance.


 * Transverse – Referring to the form of a shell when it is wider than high.


 * Tricuspidate – Having three cusps.


 * Trifid – Having three branches.


 * Trigonal – Having three angles.


 * Trilobate – Having three lobes.


 * Tripartite – Divided into three parts, as the foot of some snails.


 * Truncate – Having the end cut off squarely.


 * Tuberculate – Covered with tubercles or rounded knobs.


 * Turbinate – Having the form of a top.


 * Turriculated – Having the form of a tower.


 * Turreted – Having the form of a tower.


 * Umbilicated – Having an opening in the base of the shell.


 * Undulated – Having undulations or waves.


 * Univalve – Having the shell composed of a single piece, as a snail.


 * Varicose – Swollen or enlarged.


 * Vascular – Containing or made up of blood vessels.


 * Vermiform – Formed like a worm.


 * Ventral – The lower border or side.


 * Ventricose – Swollen or inflated on the ventral side.


 * Vibratile – Moving from side to side.


 * Vitreous – Resembling glass, as some snails.