Forms of Radix auricularia include:[5] The shell is thin, roundly ovate and very inflated, such that the last whorl comprises 90% of its volume.

The surface is shining, lines of growth are fine, wavy, crowded, with occasionally a heavy ridge representing a rest period.

The body is flecked with small white spots on the back of the head and tentacles, but not on the foot.

[1] Radix auricularia is native to Europe and most of the Palearctic including Oman, Tibet and Vietnam.

[21] This species is found in freshwater lakes, ponds, and slow-moving rivers with mud bottoms.

Radix auricularia can live on boulders or vegetation in low or high-flow environments, and is capable of tolerating anoxic conditions, but it tends to prefer very lentic waters in lakes, bogs or slow rivers where there is a silt substrate.

[7][23] Its average thermal preference is ~19 °C, but there is great fluctuation around this mean, depending on the photoperiod for the time of year.

[25] It can tolerate polysaprobic waters, or areas of major pollution and anoxia with high concentrations of organic matter, sulfides and bacteria.

[30] Various lymnaeid snails, including Radix auricularia, are vectors for a diverse range of parasites, particularly trematodes.

[31] About 80% specimens of Radix auricularia from population near Wielkopolska National Park were found to contain trematodes.

One study found that average shell height and infection severity with Trichobilharzia spp.

[46] In its native habitat, this species preys on eggs of the parasite Ascaris suum, which survive and develop after passage through the gut, and are dispersed widely, due to the activity of the snail.