benhutchins's Identifications

This and all other snail shells found at this site were found in a mound of flood debris. Thanks to @benhutchins for helping me with all the IDs! For the Pupillids, we used the keys found in Nekola and Coles, 2010, Pupillid land snails of eastern North America. I would not be at all surprised if we have made a few mistakes.

Found in a litter sample from under a low oak thicket. Only Glyphyalinia sp and cf Helicodiscus nummus were found in the same sample.

From range information, size, and morphology, this does not appear to be Thysanophora hornii, or T. plagioptycha from Fullington and Pratt (1974) Aquatic and Land Mollusca of Texas.

Perhaps it is a species previously recorded from New Mexico, but I don't have immediate access to literature for that region.

Based on Pilsbry, the larger and longer form of Rabdotus in the Guads seems to be R. dealbatus neomexicanus, but Rabdotus in west TX also seems quite confusing to me. There were consistently two sizes of shells at multiple locations in the Guads, and both (when fresh or wetted) have the 'whitewash' stripes typical of R. dealbatus.

A couple of the small land snails Two-toned Gulella, Huttonella bicolor, were found in a garden on the south side of Corpus Christi, Texas. The live specimens were taken to a lab and photographed under a microscope.

The shells were about 7-8 mm long and were found among mulch in a garden. The weather had been very dry but a recent rain helped to get some land snails to move. When brought to the lab, after some water was sprayed on the specimens, the snails started to crawl about. However, they moved too fast (funny, because we think of snails moving slowly) to be photographed well by the microscope camera. Therefore, only a few good shots of the snails moving were taken.

This snail is a carnivore and feeds on other snails. It is not native to the USA. Its origin is not certain but their probable origin is Asia or southern Africa. It has been introduced to other regions such as the Caribbean, Central and South America.

If anyone has more information about it, please let me know and I will gladly add here.

I thank Harry Lee of Florida for help with identification.