Description: Like a smaller, paler version of the mouse ear shells Myosotella but the shell is much more solid than those species and the spire is slightly turreted. There are no denticles on the outer lip. Upper shore in rock crevices or under large embedded stones. 5-6 mm.

World Distribution: Distributed along coasts from the British Isles to the western Mediterranean i.e with a Suboceanic Southern-temperate range (82).

Irish Distribution: Found widely but locally around the Irish coast, wherever sheltered conditions with friable rocks or suitable sediments occur.

Ecology:

• Widely recorded from cavities under stones embedded in muddy gravels and clays on the upper shore of sheltered bays and inlets
• Recorded occasionally with Myosotella denticulata under stones on sheltered stony foreshores
• More typically found in silty crevices of friable rocks such as slate on the upper shore or under rock overhangs

Key Identification Features:

• Small, very solid, whitish and dull shell
• Spire short and slightly turreted
• Aperture ear-shaped with a lamella on the columellar part but no outgrowths or denticles on the outer lip
• Animal whitish with eyes at the base of the short tentacles

Red list status:

• Least concern (lc).

Distribution Map from NBN: Leucophytia bidentata at National Biodiversity Network mapping facility, data for UK.

iNaturalist: Leucophytia bidentata at iNaturalist World Species Observations database.

GBIF data for Leucophytia bidentata | Classification: Gastropoda, Ellobiida, Ellobiidae, Leucophytia

Thumbnails for genus Leucophytia