Land Snails

Photo(s): The shell of the southern Appalachian Mountain endemic Mesomphix rugeli © Dan Dourson.

Click photo(s) to enlarge.

Mesomphix rugeli (W. G. Binney, 1879)

Family: Zonitidae
Common name: Wrinkled Button

Identification
Width: 16.0–22.1 mm
Height: 9.0–12.6 mm
Whorls: 5+

Mesomphix rugeli has a relatively stout shell with a slightly elevated apex – not as depressed as in M. subplanus, and the last whorl is bigger. Otherwise its shell has a design similar to others in its family, with rounded whorls and a thin lip. As for its shell sculpture, the initial whorl is smooth, after which the sculpture becomes a series of radial ridges, and finally irregular riblets on the later whorls. There are no spiral striae. West Virginia representatives are of the subspecies M. r. oxycoccus, which has a more papillose, duller shell texture (Dourson, 2015).

Ecology
This animal is found under leaf litter on wooded hillsides or mountains (Hubricht, 1985).

Taxonomy
Synonyms for M. rugeli are Mesomphix rugeli oxycoccus, Zonites inornatus, and Z. rugeli.

Distribution
Mesomphix rugeli has a limited range, from northern Alabama, being found mostly along the North Carolina-Tennessee border, and then north into western Virginia.
           
Conservation
NatureServe Global Rank: G4, Apparently Secure
NatureServe State Rank: Virginia, S3, Vulnerable; West Virginia, not ranked
Virginia’s wildlife action plan: Tier IV

 

 

Ken Hotopp, Greg Kimber 11/2012

Range Map (click to enlarge)