Clithon spinosum is a species of brackish water and freshwater snail with an operculum, a nerite. It is an aquatic gastropod mollusk in the family Neritidae, the nerites.
Distribution Distribution of Clithon spinosum includes the Indo-Pacific and it ranges from New Guinea and south-eastern Asia and eastern Asia to Marquesas. It also occurs in Japan, New Georgia,Haynes A. (1990). "The numbers of freshwater gastropods on Pacific islands and the theory of island biogeography". Malacologia 31: 237-248. Fiji and Tahiti and in French Polynesia including the following Society Islands: Tahiti, Mo'orea, Raiatea, Huahine.Myers M. J., Meyer C. P. & Resh V. H. (2000). "Neritid and thiarid gastropods from French Polynesian streams: how reproduction (sexual, parthenogenetic) and dispersal (active, passive) affect population structure". Freshwater Biology 44(3): 535–545. .
Description There are always spines on its shell.Haynes A. (1988). "Notes on the stream neritids (Gastropoda: Prosobranchia) of Oceania". Micronesica 21: 93–102. PDF. Spines are long and thin and they are directed rearward. The width of the shell is 15–20 mm.Tryon G. W. (1888–1889) Manual of Conchology, structural and systematic, with illustrations of the species. Volume 10, 322 pp., 69 plates. page 63, plate 23, figure 6–7.
Ecology Clithon spinosum is a dioecious (it has two separate sexes) and amphidromous snail. Adults live in freshwater and larvae are marine. Larvae are long-lived planktotrophs. Adults prefer boulders and cobbles over granules as a substrate.Blanco J. F. & Scatena F. N. (2007). "The spatial arrangement of Neritina virginea (Gastropoda: Neritidae) during upstream migration in a split‐channel reach". River Research and Applications 23(3): 235–245. PDF. They were found mainly on bottom of rocks in aquaria and in situ. They are reported from altitude 0–10 m a.s.l.Liu H. T. T. & Resh V. H. (1997). "Abundance and microdistribution of freshwater gastropods in three streams of Moorea, French Polynesia". International Journal of Limnology 33(4): 235–244. . They can reach densities up to 57.0 ± 17.3 snails per square meter of a stream. Adults can survive 8 hours in seawater (longer exposure was not tested).
It is not used as food source by humans.
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