Classification

Fauna Europaea

     Let's look at the reasons behind classifying the Boreal Top Snail the way we do. Animal Diversity gives us an idea of where this organism falls out in the scheme of things. At the highest level of classification, we see the Domain Eukarya. This group of organisms includes every animal with eukaryotic cells.

      From there, we can categorize Zoogenetes harpa into the Kingdom Animalia. Animals are multicellular, eukaryotic organisms.

Members of the phylum Mollusca are categorized by a the presence of a head-foot portion of the body as well as a visceral mass and mantle.
     Class Gastropoda, which lies within Phylum Mollusca, contains animals such as snails, slugs, whelks, conchs, and limpets. Most of these organisms have a single shell that is usually coiled. They also often exhibit torsion, which is a twisting of the visceral mass, resulting in the anus relocating to a position above the gills. Gastropods also have a trochophore and veliger larval form as part of their life cycle.
     Pulmonates normally reside in fresh water or on land, as Zoogenetes harpa does, and have modified their mantle cavity into a lung. They can have either one or two sets of nonretractable tentacles that bear eyes (Hickman et al. 2009).

     The genus name means "animal-birth" (LivingLandscapes). This is because Zoogenetes harpa is ovoviviparous, meaning it bears live young (Hickman et al. 2009). Learn more about ovoviviparity in the reproduction section.

The species name means "harp" (LivingLandscapes). This could be due to the striations that are present on this snails' shell.

The common name, boreal top snail, comes from the habitat of this species. "Boreal" refers to a Northern region or a forest (The Free Dictionary). These both refer to where Zoogenetes harpa lives.