Pupilla alpicola is a species of minute air-breathing land snail, a terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusk or micromollusk in the family Pupillidae.

[5][6] The form, however, represents a distinct species, which has recently been shown in a study combining morphological, ecological and molecular data by von Proschwitz et al. (2007, 2009).

Note the presence of a characteristic gutter-like depression in the external surface of the last whorl, at about 1/4 of the distance from its base.

[8] Pupilla alpicola was listed as part of fauna of the Czech Republic for a long time, (as "probably extinct" in Bohemia and critically endangered (CR) in Moravia).

[5] A wide, but scattered distribution, mainly in calcareous areas in Central, Northern and Western Europe is to be expected.

[5] So far, scattered localities are, known from Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic, Ireland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden,[5] Slovakia and Great Britain.

[21] Pupilla alpicola occurs in moss, within wet meadows in high alpine regions, mostly in calcareous fens.

[5] In Nordland County, Norway the habitats are of a different type, calcareous, rocky slopes close to the sea.

[5] Probably the wet climate in the western, coastal Norway makes it possible for the species to widen its ecological occurrence.

[5] Unfortunately, this habitat type, treeless calcareous fens, is very rare, mostly isolated and nowadays highly threatened by draining and successional changes after the cessation of regular mowing and grazing.