A dirty job, but one worth doing - Florida Caverns redux

By Harry G. Lee

[Click on the images for a higher resolution version.]

Anguispira strongylodes (L. Pfeiffer, 1854) Southeastern Tigersnail Mesodon thyroidus (Say, 1817) White-lip Globe

    Near the end of last year I reviewed the land snail collections made on the Jacksonville and Gulf Coast Shell Club joint field trip to the vicinity of the Florida Caverns State Park, Marianna, Jackson Co., Florida (10/13/90) plus collections (including litter samples) made by Henry McCullagh from the same area on 2/3/89 and 10/30/07 and posted them on the website (see: Non-marine Mollusks Found In Levy, Taylor & Jackson Counties Of W. Florida). My interest was piqued. Despite the fact that Hubricht (1985) recorded a robust 50 native land snail species from that county, no less than eight of the cumulative 30 such species we found were absent from his account. Of perhaps more interest was the fact that nine of those 30 were not among the 70 found in northeast Florida, where "saturation" collecting sustained over three decades has produced as complete an inventory as one could ask for.

    I think any dedicated
landsnailer would sense a compulsion to do a little more systematic collecting in that provident area, which, by Jacksonville molluscan standards has every right to be called "exotic" due to the presence of those nine unfamiliar species, which have affinities with the western and northern faunas. Of particular note were three species found in the soil sample taken last October (Vertigo gouldii, Helicodiscus shimeki, and Glyphyalinia lewisiana), each of which represented a considerable extension of known range. Accordingly, I made plans for an expedition in January, but a succession of meteorological and other logistic mishaps forced several postponements. Finally at 9:00 AM on April 12 I met up with Henry in the vicinity of the caverns, a little north of Marianna, FL. Despite a light to moderate drizzle, I was able to get six samples of leaf litter, some of which obviously included the "bones" of snails. I made no special attempt to collect large snails as I felt these had been adequately sampled in past campaigns.

    It took many hours of processing, culling, identifying (a work in progress as the reader will see), curating and listing the 1284 specimens and includes one
Patera perigrapta
found by Henry. A tabulation follows.

    The thirty-six (36) species of land snails collected on 12 April, 2008 appear in bold [no. specimens]. Those in
bold blue
(9) represent additions to the 30 (actually 27 after adjustments; see below) in bold black which were previously recorded:

Stenotrema florida Pilsbry, 1940 Apalachicola Slitmouth   Carychium mexicanum Pilsbry, 1891 Southern Thorn

[12]   Helicina (Olygyra) orbiculata (Say, 1818) Globular Drop
[283] Carychium mexicanum Pilsbry, 1891 Southern Thorn
[68]   Gastrocopta contracta (Say, 1822) Bottleneck Snaggletooth
[3]     Gastrocopta corticaria (Say, 1817) Bark Snaggletooth
[27]   Gastrocopta pentodon (Say, 1822) Comb Snaggletooth
[121] Pupisoma dioscoricola (C. B. Adams, 1845) Yam Babybody
[47]   Pupisoma mcneilli (Clapp, 1918) Gulf Babybody
         
Vertigo gouldii (A. Binney, 1843) Variable Vertigo
[43]   Vertigo milium (Gould, 1840) Blade Vertigo
[1]     Vertigo oralis Sterki, 1898 Palmetto Vertigo
[3]     Vertigo oscariana Sterki, 1890 Capital Vertigo
[11]   Strobilops aeneus Pilsbry, 1926 Bronze Pinecone
[5]     Strobilops texasianus Pilsbry and Ferriss, 1906 Southern Pinecone
[2]     Euglandina rosea (Férussac, 1821) Rosy Wolfsnail
[21]   Haplotrema concavum (Say, 1821) Gray-foot Lancetooth
[92]   Punctum minutissimum (I. Lea, 1841) Small Spot
         Helicodiscus notius notius Hubricht, 1962 Tight Coil
         Helicodiscus shimeki Hubricht, 1962 Temperate Coil
[54]  Helicodiscus
fimbriatus Wetherby, 1881 Fringed Coil
[23]  Lucilla cf. singleyana (Pilsbry, 1889) cf. Smooth Coil
[9]    Anguispira strongylodes (Pfeiffer, 1854) Southeastern Tigersnail
[7]    Discus patulus (Deshayes, 1832) Domed Disc
       
Euconulus chersinus (Say, 1821) Wild Hive
[61]  Euconulus dentatus (Sterki, 1893) Toothed Hive**
[24]  Euconulus trochulus (Reinhardt, 1883) Silk Hive **
       
Guppya gundlachii (L..Pfeiffer, 1840) Glossy Granule
[70]  Guppya sterkii (Dall, 1888) Sterki's Granule
[8]    Glyphyalinia lewisiana (G. Clapp, 1908) Pale Glyph
[98]  Glyphyalinia umbilicata (Singley in Cockerell, 1893) Texas Glyph
[2]    Glyphyalinia solida (H. B. Baker, 1930) Imperforate Glyph
[3]    Hawaiia alachuana (Dall, 1885) Southeast Gem

[48]  Hawaiia minuscula (A. Binney, 1841) Minute Gem
[35]  Mesomphix globosus (MacMillan, 1940) Globose Button
[12]  Mesomphix pilsbryi (G. Clapp, 1904) Striate Button
[10]  Striatura meridionalis (Pilsbry and Ferriss, 1906) Southern Striate
[34]  Zonitoides arboreus (Say, 1817) Quick Gloss
[1]    Lobosculum pustuloides (Bland, 1858) Tiny Liptooth
[28]  Inflectarius inflectus (Say, 1821) Shagreen
[1]    Mesodon thyroidus (Say, 1817) White-lip Globe
[1]    Patera perigrapta (Pilsbry, 1894) Engraved Bladetooth
[19]  Stenotrema florida Pilsbry, 1940 Appalachicola Slitmouth
 

 

 

 

Hundreds Of Specimens Of 12 Species Of Microsnails That Were Culled During The Processing                              Mesomphix pilsgryi & Mesomphix globosus comparison

    Regarding the five nomina stricken-through: V. gouldii is thought to have been a contaminant, possibly an error in sorting [simply deleted]; Helicodiscus notius notius [misidentification; simply deleted], H. shimeki [misidentification; deleted and replaced by H. cf. shimeki], Euconulus chersinus [possible misidentification (see below); deleted and replaced by E. dentatus], and Guppya gundlachii [misidentification of a juvenile Euconulus; simply deleted].

Of the eleven species names new to the cumulative list:


Gastrocopta corticaria (Say, 1817) Bark Snaggletooth [CR]
Vertigo milium (Gould, 1840) Blade Vertigo
Vertigo oralis Sterki, 1898 Palmetto Vertigo
Strobilops texasianus Pilsbry and Ferriss, 1906 Southern Pinecone
Helicodiscus fimbriatus Wetherby, 1881 Fringed Coil [NL]
Euconulus dentatus (Sterki, 1893) Toothed Hive
(replaces E. chersinus)
[SR]
Euconulus trochulus (Reinhardt, 1883) Silk Hive [CR]
Glyphyalinia solida (H. B. Baker, 1930) Imperforate Glyph [CR]
Hawaiia alachuana (Dall, 1885) Southeast Gem [CR]
Mesomphix pilsbryi (G. Clapp, 1904) Striate Button
Striatura meridionalis (Pilsbry and Ferriss, 1906) Southern Striate
[CR]

   
Five (5) are county records [CR], one is a state record [SR], and one is not listed [NL] vs. Hubricht (1985). In the cumulative account (37 species) there are now ten recognized species absent from northeast FL and, disregarding the NL Helicodiscus, 11 new Jackson Co. records.


    Although I mourn the loss of the Vertigo gouldii, the known range of which would have been a spectacularly extended, I think the results of this effort nonetheless reinforced the fact that Jackson Co. has a rich and diverse land snail fauna with a composition quite different from our area. Future investigations and discussions will be dedicated to further defining and understanding this dichotomy.

**There are at least two different Euconulus species here. E. trochulus has a larger whorl caliber and a wider, more triangular, profile than the other morph. This difference is best appreciated in adult shells (see images, above right). About half the shells of the latter group demonstrate one or more internal shelly nodes or transverse lamellae on the basal aspect of the body whorl visible through the shell. These specimens, all sub-adult and many quite small, are referable to the taxon E. dentatus. The literature indicates that this dentition becomes obsolete in adult specimens. Furthermore, neither the literature nor I can indicate any difference between the adult shells of E. dentatus and those of Euconulus chersinus (Say, 1821), the Wild Hive. Thus we may have three species here, but I have followed the more conservative course and listed just the first two taxa.

Hubricht, L., 1985, The distributions of the native land mollusks of the Eastern United States. Fieldiana 24(1359): pp. 1-191 + viii. June 28.

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