Chinese mystery snail
| Chinese mystery snail | |
|---|---|
| A live individual out of water | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Mollusca |
| Class: | Gastropoda |
| Subclass: | Caenogastropoda |
| Order: | Architaenioglossa |
| Family: | Viviparidae |
| Genus: | Cipangopaludina |
| Species: | C. chinensis |
| Binomial name | |
| Cipangopaludina chinensis (Gray, 1834) | |
| Synonyms | |
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The Chinese mystery snail, black snail, or trapdoor snail (Cipangopaludina chinensis), is a large freshwater snail with gills and an operculum, an aquatic gastropod mollusk in the family Viviparidae. The Japanese variety of this species is black and usually a dark green, moss-like alga covers the shell.
The name "trapdoor snail" refers the operculum, an oval corneous plate that most snails in this clade possess. When the soft parts of the snail are fully retracted, the operculum seals the aperture of the shell, providing some protection against drying out and predation.