Renter: Snail shells. Empty snail shells (e.g. Helicella, Theba) with 1 cell per shell. The closed shells are buried into the sandy ground (ca. 1.5cm deep). Mavromoustakis reports usage of shells of Pseudoxerophila confusa Gittenberger (as Helicella cretica sitienisis) and Xeromunda candiota ( as Helicella candiota) in Cyprus.
Nesting material: The mouth of the shell is sealed with a partition of masticated leaves and flowers from a variety of different plant species; this partition is then covered with small fragments of broken shells, sometimes also with small stones, cemented together with masticated leaves. In the subspecies fossoria, the shell surface is plastered with patches of leaf pulp, in the subspecies sybarita the shell surface lacks leaf pulp patches. (Ferton, 1890; Haeseler, 1997; Mavromoustakis, 1939, 1948)