If you wish to read my PHOTO GUIDELINES FOR MOLLUSKS, please scroll more than halfway down this page.
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"The naturalist suffers a pleasant nuisance – not being able to walk 100 yards without being tied to the spot by some new and wondrous creature."

~- Charles Darwin, whose home in Downe, Kent, I visited often while I was growing up.

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"It seems to me that the natural world is the greatest source of excitement; the greatest source of visual beauty; the greatest source of intellectual interest."

-- David Attenborough, whom I have loved to watch on TV since I was a small child.

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"Nature holds the key to our aesthetic, intellectual, cognitive and even spiritual satisfaction."

-- E. O. Wilson, who for two years was an extraordinary conversation partner of mine in the tearoom of the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology. Lucky me, right? but no-one else seemed to want to go over and talk to him, (maybe they felt intimidated?) so I did that every chance I got, which was nearly every day.
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I am a keen urban naturalist and a citizen scientist malacologist. I was born in, and grew up in, England, at the edge of the suburbs of London -- in Hayes, Bromley, Kent. Since 1982 I have been living in Manhattan, NYC, US. Way back in 1970 and 1971, I lived in San Diego North County, in Southern California, which area I re-visit almost every year. I currently also usually visit the islands of St. Kitts and Nevis in the West Indies, and Sanibel in SW Florida, almost every year. In April of 1991, 1992, 1993, 1995, and 1996, I visited the private island of Mustique in the Grenadines.

I have had 60 scientific papers published so far in my life. My 56th paper was created with several co-authors, including two other iNat contributors, and was based on iNat data. Here you can find a list of my papers:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Invertzoo/Publications#Publications_list

And I am on ResearchGate:

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Susan_Hewitt

As I child I visited Darwin's house in the village of Downe, North Kent, two or three times every year. Both the house and the grounds were kept as they were when Darwin lived there. One time, when I was 10, the docent asked me if I wanted to play something on the piano in Darwin's living room, so of course I did. When I was little, because we visited his house so often, I wondered if Darwin was some sort of relative or close family friend -- Uncle Charlie, who was, and still is, my hero.

Ever since I was very young, I have had a particular interest in marine and non-marine Mollusca, shelled and shell-less. But although my forté is identifying mollusks, I have a lot of other wide-ranging natural history knowledge, which I am always working on expanding. I am surveying the spontaneous vegetation and wildlife of NYC, in particular attempting to record the overall biodiversity of Randall's Island Park, more recently that of Carl Schurz Park, and even more recently that of Governors Island.

As I already mentioned, whenever possible I travel to Nevis, West Indies, also Encinitas, California, and Sanibel, Florida. I am interested in meeting keen local naturalists wherever I go, so please, don't be shy, drop me a message to let me know that I can meet up with you, either here in NYC, or when I am away somewhere, as will be visible in my daily observations!

iNaturalist has provided data that is used in these papers of mine:

PUBLISHED

• Hewitt, Susan J., A new addition to the land snail fauna of North America: Caucasotachea vindobonensis, currently spreading in the northeast, American Conchologist magazine
  Volume 49, No 2, pages 22 to 25

• Hewitt, Susan J. & Lee, Harry G., First records of the Magnolia Threetooth, Triodopsis hopetonensis, in New York City, American Conchologist magazine, vol 49, No 2, pages 32 to 36
• Hewitt, Susan J., December 2017, Additions to the marine mollusk checklist for the island of Saba, Leeward Islands, West Indies, Vita Malacologica Vol 16, 40 - 43
• Atha, D., B. Boom, A. Thornbrough, J. Kurtz, L. McIntyre, M. Hagen, J.A. Schuler, L. Rohleder, S.J. Hewitt, and J. Kelly. 2017. Arum italicum (Araceae) is invasive in New York. Phytoneuron 2017-31: 1–18. Published 28 April 2017. ISSN 2153 733X Online at: :http://www.phytoneuron.net/2017Phytoneuron/31PhytoN-ArumitalicumNYBG.pdf
• Atha, Daniel, Susan J. Hewitt & Zihao Wang, First Report of Croton glandulosus (Euphorbiaceae) for New York, Phytoneuron 2020-87: 1–4. Published 18 December 2020. ISSN 2153 733X
• Hewitt, Susan J. & Daniel Atha, Phyllanthus tenellus, Mascarene Island Leaf Flower, growing spontaneously in New York City, New York Flora Association Quarterly Newsletter, Fall 2020, Volume 31, Issue 4, pages 11 - 12.
• Susan J. Hewitt & David Jeffrey Ringer, Littoraria nebulosa (Lamarck, 1822) Littorinidae, extending known range, American Conchologist, 2020, Vol. 48, No. 3 (September), pages 4 - 7.
• Hewitt, Susan J., Daniel Atha & David J. Ringer, 2020, Descurainia sophia (L.) Webb ex Prantl (Brassicaceae) rediscovered in New York City after more than 100 years, New York Flora Association Quarterly Newsletter, Spring 2020, Volume 31, Issue 2 pages 10 - 12.
• Susan Hewitt, "An Urban iNaturalist -- Exploring the biodiversity of Randall's Island, New York" including a big sidebar, "About iNaturalist", Senior Hiker Magazine, Issue 10 2020, winter of 2020, pages 52 - 57.
• Georgia Murray with Susan Hewitt, "An Alpine iNaturalist -- Studying climate change through the flowering of alpine plants", Senior Hiker Magazine, Issue 10 2020, winter of 2020, pages 58 - 62.

• Hewitt, Susan J., Bernard Picton, Anne DuPont & Rodrigo Salvador, 2021. New records of marine mollusks from Saba Island, Caribbean Netherlands, 2021 Basteria, pages 59 - 72
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On August 3rd 2018, the Associated Press released a journalism piece about the New York Botanical Garden (NYBG) project, "New York City Ecoflora", which uses iNaturalist as a platform. An AP journalist and a photographer interviewed me, both at home and out on the streets photographing plants, and I was featured prominently in the write-up. The piece, entitled "The Green Big Apple: New Yorkers document the city’s plants" ran in a vast number of news outlets, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Miami Herald, the San Francisco Chronicle, and even the Daily Mail in the UK.

https://apnews.com/edc799a99bbc4043847390a279e84164

Also on August 3rd 2018, I gave a 20-minute talk and PowerPoint slideshow at the NYBG. It was the final talk of the "First Annual New York City Ecoflora Conference", and I entitled it: "Finding the Wild; a Naturalist's Adventures in NYC". I was given a prize for having made the most iNat nature observations in NYC, as well as having recorded the greatest total of all kinds of wild species in NYC.

As far as malacology goes, I can identify most of the non-marine and marine mollusks of the British Isles (especially East Anglia); most of the marine mollusks of the West Coast of North America (especially San Diego County); most marine mollusks of the East Coast of the USA (especially New York State); the Gulf of Mexico (especially Sanibel, Lee County, Florida); and the Caribbean Sea (the islands of Nevis & St. Kitts, St. Eustatius, and Montserrat).

I taught a college seminar at Yale on mollusks. I also worked for two years at the Louis Agassiz Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard, in the mollusk department. Starting in 1999, I volunteered at the American Museum of Natural History, first in the Malacology section of Invertebrate Zoology, and then, when that section closed, in the invertebrate section of Paleontology. I am currently a Volunteer Emeritus at AMNH. I have given material to numerous museums in the US and the UK.

Decades ago I did a great deal of fieldwork towards mapping the distribution of the land and freshwater mollusks of the British Isles, for the two published Atlases edited by Michael P. Kerney. I am listed in both of those books as a contributor to the mapping project.

In June of 2015, I was one of 20 scientists who took part in a three-week marine biology expedition to the Dutch Caribbean island of Sint Eustatius. The expedition was organized by Naturalis, the Dutch National Museum in Leiden, and by the ANEMOON Foundation. I had previously visited St. Eustatius three times on day trips from the nearby island of Nevis, and as a result I had written short papers listing what marine mollusks I had found there, and that was basically why I was chosen for the big expedition.

For the last six years during March/April/May I have stayed on the Caribbean island of Nevis for four weeks each year. I am also usually in Southern California for two weeks in September/October/November, and on Sanibel Island in S.W. Florida for three weeks in December, although damage from Hurricane Ian has made that impossible for the last three years.

On Wikipedia, I started editing in 2007, and I was extremely active for a number of years, writing and co-writing thousands of articles, including the very popular Love dart:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_dart

...and see this very nice Wikipedia video about it, featuring myself:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:What%27s_a_Love_Dart%3F.webm

This article, which is primarily written by me, has probably saved a few lives in advance:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rip_current

In 2011, my face and words were used online in a world-wide fundraising Wikipedia banner, and as a result of that, I was interviewed in the print, online, and broadcast media.

I am slowly starting to learn to identify the native non-marine mollusks of the US, a huge task. I already know most of New York City's non-marine mollusk species, but the great majority of those are introduced.

NOTE: I don't know the native non-marine mollusks of other parts of the world. However, I can probably recognize most of the species that were accidentally introduced from Europe.

ANOTHER NOTE: I changed my screen name here on iNat to my real name on September 23, 2016. Previously my screen name on here was "Invertzoo" -- I still use that name on Wikipedia.

iNat User ID - 50920

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YEARS IN REVIEW

2014 stats:
https://www.inaturalist.org/stats/2014/susanhewitt

2015 stats:
https://www.inaturalist.org/stats/2015/susanhewitt

2016 stats:
https://www.inaturalist.org/stats/2016/susanhewitt

2017 stats:
https://www.inaturalist.org/stats/2017/susanhewitt

2018 stats:
https://www.inaturalist.org/stats/2018/susanhewitt

2019 stats:
https://www.inaturalist.org/stats/2019/susanhewitt

2020 stats:
https://www.inaturalist.org/stats/2020/susanhewitt

2021 stats:
https://www.inaturalist.org/stats/2021/susanhewitt

2022 stats:
https://www.inaturalist.org/stats/2022/susanhewitt

2023 stats:
https://www.inaturalist.org/stats/2023/susanhewitt
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PHOTO GUIDELINES FOR MOLLUSKS
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ID-ing mollusks from photos can often be very difficult indeed, even for an expert, so I wrote these guidelines to help people get photos that are good enough that the mollusk can probably be ID'ed to the species level:

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GENERAL..............................................................................................................................

*** SCALE OBJECT -- In one photo please include a scale object (e.g. your fingertip or finger(s), a pen or pencil, a coin, or ideally, a small ruler). Without this, it can be hard for anyone else to guess the real size of the creature, which strongly affects the possible ID. If you pose a shell on your hand, a scale is automatically built-in:

http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/3696185

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*** SHELLED MOLLUSKS -- if the animal is a snail and it is alive, look around the immediate area and see if you can find an empty (full-grown) shell that is as fresh as possible. Using an empty shell (and sometimes even using a live animal), it is often not difficult to shoot three views from different angles (dorsal, ventral and lateral), including the details of the aperture, or the interior of the shell if it's a bivalve. Failing this, don't be shy to pick up the creature and turn it around this way and that for photographing. When you are done, put it back where it was, or nearby in a damp and safe place, with the aperture down.
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ALL SHELLED SNAILS..................................................................................

*** With empty gastropod shells as well as live snails, please shoot more than one view, ideally three: dorsal, ventral, and lateral. At least photograph both the dorsal surface and a clear view of the aperture. If you can't find an empty shell, most live snails will retract if you prod them gently, and then you can get a shot showing the shape of the aperture, the nature of the operculum (in species that have one) and the color of the lip of the shell, where present.

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ON THE LAND................................................................................................

*** Land snails:

If you find a group of snails that look more or less the same, always pick out whichever snail in the group has a relatively large shell and one where the edge of the aperture is sturdy and reinforced. That means it's an adult and much easier to ID.

Juvenile land snails can be almost as big as an adult, but the lip of their shell is very soft and still growing. We usually need to see a fully adult shell and its reinforced lip, in order to see the characteristics that enable us to suggest a reliable ID.

Even a dead empty adult shell is good for ID-ing the species, especially if the empty shell is fairly fresh still, and not too bleached-out.

Check these examples for the right ways to photograph a land snail shell:

http://www.inaturalist.org/journal/kueda/3799

*** Land slugs. One shot from above is often not enough to ID a slug. We usually need at least one additional close shot from the side. If possible, photograph the right side of the slug, which will show the position of the respiratory pore, and the markings around it. A scale object is almost always necessary.

Sometimes we need to see the shape of the tip of the tail of the slug, from the side. We also may need to be able to see the color and markings on the foot fringe, where the foot meets the substrate.

The color of the sole of the foot of the slug is also often helpful to know (is it orange? white? longitudinally banded?) so please gently turn the slug over. The qualities of the body mucus (orange? colorless? milky when irritated? thick and sticky?) can also sometimes be helpful to know.

If a slug is contracted (or if a land snail is retracted into its shell) just pour a little water from your water bottle over it and wait a minute or two; usually the slug or snail will become active and extend its soft parts.

If a land slug is covered with pieces of dirt, please rinse the dirt off with a little water from your water bottle.

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OTHER MOLLUSKS, BY THE WATER, SALT OR FRESH.......................................................................................
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*** Bivalves, whole or single valves? Please shoot the exterior square-on from above, NOT at an angle. For empty valves, it is necessary to shoot the interior too, square-on and in enough detail that we can see the hinge line and muscle scars. If the bivalve is very generic-looking, a lateral shot is also a good idea because it shows the three-dimensional shape of the shell.

*** Limpets? If possible, find an individual where the shell is is good condition (not eroded) with the sculpture intact. If you have an empty shell, photograph the outside, inside and a side shot. Remember that limpets can be very variable, so an image of just one individual in a population may not be enough to ID the species.

*** Chitons? Try to get some close shots of an individual whose shell valves are not too eroded or encrusted. We need to see the sculpture of the plates and the kind of girdle the chiton has.

*** Sea hares and sea slugs? Try as much as possible to photograph these while they are in the water, because out of the water they usually collapse into a featureless blob.

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NOTES ON TRACKS, TRAILS, AND SIGNS LEFT BEHIND BY LAND SNAILS AND SLUGS
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Land snails and slugs can leave behind them four kinds of tracks, trails or signs:

1. Shiny silvery dried mucus trails where they have moved along, often at night.
2. Grazing trails -- these are left usually by slugs, but also by snails, on surfaces where they have fed on microscopic terrestrial algae. These surfaces include smooth tree bark, as well as smooth human-made surfaces such as plastic, the glass of greenhouses, etc.
3. Where land snails have rested for hours and then moved on, they often leave some strings of poop behind.

4. When snails have become active after having been withdrawn into the shell during a spell of dry weather (a state called "estivation"), they often leave behind flimsy broken remnants of an "epiphragm" -- a thin dried mucus layer that covers the aperture of the snail's shell. A snail secretes an epiphragm to prevent its soft parts from losing too much moisture while it remains motionless. Some epiphragms are calcareous.
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P.S. Do wash your hands before you eat lunch after handling land snails and land slugs; some carry parasites that can spread to humans.

P.P.S. Marine shells that are damaged and beach-worn may sometimes be impossible to ID to species, as may some other shells, and even some live animals.

P.P.P.S. There are more than 100,000 species of mollusk worldwide, not counting the as yet unnamed species which might double that total. I believe that no single person can identify more than a few thousand mollusks to species from memory.

Note: Even though I try to be conscientious, I do inevitably get some IDs wrong, especially because on iNaturalist I am always learning something new, and pushing the boundaries of what I understand, or what I think I understand. Please always feel free to put in a new ID, or to quiz me about an old one if you think it might be incorrect. Live and learn! :)

So I can find my comments page: https://www.inaturalist.org/comments?mine=true

Heat map of my observations
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/map?ident_user_id=susanhewitt#2/-15.904/32.518

Aphids website:
http://www.aphidsonworldsplants.info

Vision Demo:
https://www.inaturalist.org/computer_vision_demo

When iNat ran a profile on me as an identifier.
Posted by tiwane tiwane, July 28, 2022 18:17:
https://www.inaturalist.org/blog/68606-identifier-profile-susanhewitt

https://www.inaturalist.org/pages/identifier_profiles

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