Look Small and See More - Land Snails

On a recent trip to search for salamanders I found only a single salamander species, and after some half-hearted picking up of snail shells I was astonished to find I had eight different kinds from the same hillside! Dan Dourson recently completed a field guide to the nearly 200 species of land snails found in Kentucky ("Kentucky's Land Snails and Their Ecological Communities"). It has the most useful taxonomic key to identification that I have ever used. For those who are unfamiliar with taxonomic keys the saying is: "they are made for people who can't use them by people who don't need them", but that is certainly not true in this case. It is filled with pictures, and even the relative novice can use it successfully.

Starting from top left large white shell going clockwise:
Toothed Globe, Mesodon zaletus
Proud Globe, Mesodon elevatus
Some kind of "Button" snail, Mesomphix sp.
Gray-foot Lancetooth, Haplotrema concavum
Flamed Disk, Anguispira alternata
Shagreen, Inflectarius inflectatus
Inland Slitmouth, Stenotrema stenotrema
Slender Walker, Pomatiopsis lapidaria (center tiny one)

Here's a closeup of that tiny one in the middle of the previous photo (slender walker). It's a minuscule amphibious species from seeps and moist hillsides.


Here's a closeup of a live upland pillsnail (Euchemotrema fraternum) (Not from Floyds Fork).


My wife found this great mixture of patterns and colors by looking small.


The winter hillside along Floyds Fork where I found at least 9 snail species and 1 salamander species.