Land Snails

Photo(s): Views of a Stenotrema macgregori shell © Dan Dourson.

Click photo(s) to enlarge.

Stenotrema macgregori (Dourson, 2011)

Family: Polygyridae
Common name: Fraudulent Slitmouth

Identification
Width: 8-10 mm
Whorls: 5-6

The shell of this snail is pill-shaped and imperforate. The parietal tooth is long, the basal notch shallow, and the interdenticular notch almost non-existent. Within the shell aperture is a short fulcrum. Short stiff “hairs” upon the periostracum sparsely cover the outer surface. The shell is smaller than S. stenotrema and has a slightly wider aperture (Dourson, 2011).

Ecology
In eastern Kentucky, Stenotrema macgregori lives in leaf litter in richer, mid-elevation forests of Pine Mountain on the Virginia border (Dourson, 2011). It is absent from more acid hemlock stands, rhododendron patches, and ridgetops.

Taxonomy
There are no synonyms for this recently-described species.

Distribution
Although this species has not yet been reported in Virginia, it may well be found in the western counties abutting Kentucky.

 

Ken Hotopp 4/2013

Range Map(click to enlarge)