Bennett Branch, Bowden Road, Southeastern Duval County, Florida

    As part of an on-going project to formally document the presence of Pomacea paludosa (Say, 1829) [Florida Applesnail] in northeast Florida, a visit was made to a small drainage ditch (Bennett Branch) in a residential area of southeastern Duval County on 10/20/2005. The ditch in question flows north to south under Bowden Road via a concrete box culvert just east of the intersection of Bowden Road and Southpoint Parkway. In addition to the normal water flow of the ditch, it also drains two medium sized retention ponds located immediately to the north of Bowden Road. Ultimately, the ditch flows into the Pottsburg Creek Watershed.

    Upon arrival in the area, I found a minimal number of Pomacea paludosa eggs on the box culvert just north of Bowden Road. The ditch was then investigated upstream, along with the two retention ponds, but no further evidence of Pomacea was seen. Across the road, the southern end of the box culvert was also found found to have additional Pomacea eggs and some egg clutches were also seen on nearby vegetation. Ultimately a single live Pomacea was seen crawling in the shallow water.

    While there is obviously a breeding population in the ditch, the minimal number of egg clutches seen combined with the visually apparent very poor water quality, suggests that the resident Pomacea population is quite small. The Duval County Enviromental Quality Division earlier this year sampled the water just downstream (Salisbury Road) from where the live Pomacea was found. Their tests showed a reading of 3,000 fecal coliform bacteria colonies per 100 milliliters of water. A reading of over 800 is considered a definite health risk.

Pictured below is Bennett Branch and one of the retention ponds.

Bennett Branch and one of the retention ponds.

Aquatic Species

  • Pisidium casertanum (Poli, 1791) Ubiquitous Peaclam
  • Sphaerium occidentale (J. Lewis, 1856) Herrington Peaclam
  • Campeloma floridense (Call, 1886) Purple-throat Campeloma
  • Fossaria cubensis (Pfeiffer, 1839) Carib Fossaria
  • Pomacea paludosa (Say, 1829) Florida Applesnail
  • Physella heterostropha (Say, 1817) Pewter Physa
  • Gyraulus parvus (Say, 1817) Ash Gyro
  • Menetus dilatatus avus (Pilsbry, 1905) Keeled Bugle Sprite
  • Menetus floridensis (F. C. Baker, 1945) Penny Sprite
  • Planorbella trivolvis (Say, 1817) Marsh Rams-horn  First Northeast Florida Record
  • Hebetancylus excentricus (Morelet, 1851) Excentric Ancylid
  • Melanoides tuberculata (Müller, 1774) Red-rim Melania   Exotic Species
  • Utterbackia imbecillis (Say, 1829) Paper Pondshell  Exotic Species (11/23/2016)
  • Corbicula fluminea (Müller, 1774) Asian Clam  Exotic Species (11/23/2016)

Terrestrial Species

  • Gastrocopta pellucida (Pfeiffer, 1841) Slim Snaggletooth
  • Gastrocopta rupicola (Say, 1821) Tapered Snaggletooth
  • Gastrocopta servilis (Gould, 1843) Wandering Snag
  • Gastrocopta tappaniana (C.B. Adams, 1841) White Snaggletooth
  • Pupisoma dioscoricola (C.B. Adams, 1845) Yam Babybody
  • Pupisoma mcneilli (Clapp, 1918) Gulf Babybody
  • Pupoides modicus (Gould, 1848) Island Dagger
  • Vertigo milium (Gould, 1840) Blade Vertigo
  • Vertigo oralis Sterki, 1898 Palmetto Vertigo
  • Vertigo ovata Say, 1822 Ovate Vertigo
  • Succinea campestris Say, 1818 Crinkled Ambersnail ?
  • Succinea unicolor Tryon, 1866 Squatty Ambersnail
  • Oxyloma effusum (Pfeiffer, 1853) Coastal Plain Ambersnail
  • Philomycus carolinianus (Bosc, 1802) Carolina Mantleslug
  • Lucilla cf. singleyana (Pilsbry, 1889) cf. Smooth Coil
  • Hawaiia minuscula (A. Binney, 1841) Minute Gem
  • Ventridens cerinoideus (Anthony, 1865) Wax Dome
  • Ventridens demissus (A. Binney, 1843) Perforate Dome
  • Zonitoides arboreus (Say, 1817) Quick Gloss
  • Dryachloa dauca Thompson and Lee, 1981 Carrot Glass
  • Euconulus trochulus (Reinhart, 1883) Silk Hive [lost in processing]
  • Polygyra cereolus (Mühlfeld, 1816) Southern Flatcoil
  • Polygyra septemvolva Say, 1818 Florida Flatcoil
  • Allopeas gracile (Hutton, 1834) Graceful Awlsnail  Exotic Species
  • Opeas pyrgula Schmacker and Boettger, 1891 Sharp Awlsnail  Exotic Species
  • Huttonella bicolor (Hutton, 1834) Two-tone Gullela  Exotic Species
  • Bradybaena similaris (Férussac, 1821) Asian Trampsnail  Exotic Species

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