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Ash Gyro
A native mollusk with a small, planispiral shell. The shell surface is smooth and glossy, semi-translucent, and brownish.
About This Species
The ash gyro is a Colorado native mollusk. The ash gyro was originally described in the genus Planorbis.
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Physical Characteristics
The shell of the ash gyro is small, up to seven mm in diameter. It is planispiral but not completely flattened. The shell has four rounded whorls that enlarge rapidly and a flat spire that hides first two whorls. The wide umbilicus on the opposite side shows all the whorls. The shell surface is smooth and glossy, semi-translucent, and brownish. The shell of the ash gyro is thicker than the disk gyro (Gyraulus circumstriatus), but they are quite similar.
Range
The range of the ash gyro is from Canada to Florida, from the Atlantic to the Pacific coast.
Habitat
The ash gyro can be seen throughout Colorado clinging to vegetation in perennial and seasonal shallow waters on the plains and in montane areas. It prefers ponds, impoundments, and slow-moving waters that are choked with vegetation.