Recently, researchers have discovered a micro snail species named Georissa mawsmaiensis in Mawsmai Cave in Meghalaya.

About the new snail species

• These snails are so small in size that an adult measures less than 2 millimetres in length.
• It has been discovered after 170 years.
• It was in 1851 that Georissa saritta, a member of the same genus as the latest find, was collected and described from the Musmai (Mawsmai today) valley near Cherrapunjee.
• The members of the Georissa genus are widely distributed across and reported from Africa, Asia, and the Pacific.
• However, they are confined to microhabitats consisting of limestone caves or karst landscapes formed by the dissolution of limestone.
• Georissa is found in soil or subterranean habitats in lowland tropical forest as well as high altitude evergreen forests or on rock surfaces rich in calcium.
• The new species is different in its shell morphology, starting from shell size variation to the presence of four very prominent spiral striations on body whorls of the shell.
• Until now, five snail species have been found from the caves of Meghalaya.

Source: The Hindu