page_title: Balea sarsii
section_title: Description
hierarchical_section_title: Balea sarsii / Description
caption_attribution_description: English: Photo of a lateral view of a shell of Balea sarsii. Locality: Norway, Hordaland, Bergen. Scale bar is 1 mm.
context_page_description: Balea sarsii is a species of air-breathing land snail, a terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusk in the family Clausiliidae.
  The species has long been overlooked because of confusion with Balea perversa.
context_section_description: The shell of this species is sinistral (left-handed) in its coiling. Differs from Balea perversa in its more slender and yellowish rather than brownish shell. The first whorl increases in diameter more rapidly and the sculpture is more weakly striated (with coarse growth lines rather than distinct riblets).
  Balea sarsii, differs from Balea perversa through its, in most cases, shorter, broader shell, in which the whorls increase more quickly in width.
  Balea sarsii reaches a maximal height of 7 mm; Balea perversa might be higher (up to 10 mm). The sculpture in Balea sarsii is also more wrinkled, coarser and less regular, compared to the fine, regular riblets typical for Balea perversa. The shell colour is also yellowish – light brown, compared to the usually somewhat darker brown in Balea perversa. A weak, parietal denticle may be present in Balea perversa, but not in Balea sarsii. All these characters are, however, variable; especially the shell dimensions. The most reliable character to use in separating the two species is the form of the apical whorls: in Balea perversa this part of the shell is almost cylindrical, but in Balea sarsii it is conical.
caption: Lateral view of a shell.
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