THE LAND SNAILS OF BRITISH COLUMBIA
Oregon Forestsnail, photo by Ryan Durand
INTRODUCTION
By Robert G. Forsyth
Research Associate
Royal British Columbia Museum
There are about 94 species of terrestrial snails and slugs in British Columbia, but it seems likely that this number will increase as additional species are recognized from the province. Snails and slugs are gastropods (class Gastropoda) belonging to a large and successful group of invertebrate animals known as molluscs (phylum Mollusca). Strictly speaking, in British Columbia all of our terrestrial gastropods possess a ‘lung’ for respiration rather than gills, which are typical of most aquatic forms, and belong to the order (or subclass) Pulmonata. However, there frequently live several other somewhat amphibious snails — often in close proximity to ‘typical’ land snails — that are traditionally treated as components of either the freshwater (Bakerilymnaea bulimoides and Fossaria spp.) or semi-marine fauna (Littorina subrotundata, Cecina manchurica, Assiminea translucens and Myosotella myosotis). In other parts of the world, and especially in the tropics, gill-bearing, ‘prosobranch’ gastropods have fully adapted to life on land.
Pacific Sideband, photo by Ryan Durand
Land snails and slugs live in a wide variety of terrestrial habits throughout British Columbia— including forests of all types, rock slides, alpine tundra and meadows and marshes. Many of these are not native, live in city gardens and in other modified habitats.
At least 26 species of terrestrial snails and slugs in British Columbia are introduced. Most of these exotic species are ultimately of European origin, but their date of arrival and means of introduction are not known. It can be inferred, however, that most arrived through passive dispersal on imported plants, and snails, slugs and their eggs continue to be dispersed between neighbourhoods and around British Columbia this way, or with garden refuse, soil, wood, rocks, and other materials.
TERRESTRIAL SNAILS AND SLUGS OF BRITISH COLUMBIA
Species | Common Name | BC List Status |
---|---|---|
Aegopinella nitidula | Waxy Glass Snail | Exotic |
Allogona ptychophora | Idaho Forestsnail | Yellow |
Allogona townsendiana | Oregon Forestsnail | Red |
Ancotrema hybridum | Oregon Lancetooth | Yellow |
Ancotrema sportella | Beaded Lancetooth | Yellow |
Anguispira kochi | Banded Tigersnail | Blue |
Ariolimax columbianus | Pacific Bananaslug | Yellow |
Arion circumscriptus | Brown-banded Arion | Exotic |
Arion distinctus | Darkface Arion | Exotic |
Arion hortensis | Garden Arion | Exotic |
Arion intermedius | Hedgehog Arion | Exotic |
Arion rufus | Chocolate Arion | Exotic |
Arion silvaticus | Forest Arion | Exotic |
Arion subfuscus | Dusky Arion | Exotic |
Bithynia tentaculata | Mud Bithynia | Exotic |
Boettgerilla pallens | Wormslug | Exotic |
Carychium minimum | Herald Thorn | Exotic |
Carychium occidentale | Western Thorn | Blue |
Catinella vermeta | Suboval Ambersnail | No Status |
Cepaea nemoralis | Grovesnail | Exotic |
Cochlicopa lubrica | Glossy Pillar | Yellow |
Columella columella | Mellow Column | Yellow |
Columella edentula | Toothless Column | Yellow |
Cornu aspersum | Brown Gardensnail | Exotic |
Cryptomastix devia | Puget Oregonian | Red |
Cryptomastix germana | Pygmy Oregonian | Yellow |
Cryptomastix mullani | Coeur d'Alene Oregonian | Blue |
Deroceras hesperium | Evening Fieldslug | Red |
Deroceras laeve | Meadow Slug | Yellow |
Deroceras panormitanum | Longneck Fieldslug | Exotic |
Deroceras reticulatum | Gray Fieldslug | Exotic |
Discus rotundatus | Rotund Disc | Exotic |
Discus shimekii | Striate Disc | Yellow |
Discus whitneyi | Forest Disc | Yellow |
Gastrocopta holzingeri | Lambda Snaggletooth | Blue |
Haplotrema vancouverense | Robust Lancetooth | Yellow |
Hemphillia camelus | Pale Jumping-slug | Blue |
Hemphillia dromedarius | Dromedary Jumping-slug | Red |
Hemphillia glandulosa | Warty Jumping Slug | Blue |
Lauria cylindracea | Chrysalis Snail | Exotic |
Lehmannia valentiana | Threeband Gardenslug | Exotic |
Limacus flavus | Yellow Gardenslug | Exotic |
Limax maximus | Giant Gardenslug | Exotic |
Magnipelta mycophaga | Magnum Mantleslug | Blue |
Microphysula cookei | Vancouver Snail | Yellow |
Microphysula ingersolli | Spruce Snail | Yellow |
Monadenia fidelis | Pacific Sideband | Blue |
Nearctula sp. | Threaded Vertigo | Red |
Nesovitrea binneyana | Blue Glass | Yellow |
Nesovitrea electrina | Amber Glass | Yellow |
Oreohelix strigosa | Rocky Mountainsnail | Blue |
Oreohelix subrudis | Subalpine Mountainsnail | Blue |
Oxychilus alliarius | Garlic Glass-snail | Exotic |
Oxychilus cellarius | Cellar Glass-snail | Exotic |
Oxychilus draparnaudi | Dark-bodied Glass-snail | Exotic |
Oxyloma groenlandicum | Ruddy Ambersnail | No Status |
Oxyloma hawkinsi | Boundary Ambersnail | No Status |
Oxyloma nuttallianum | Oblique Ambersnail | No Status |
Planogyra clappi | Western Flat-whorl | Yellow |
Pristiloma arcticum | Northern Tightcoil | Blue |
Pristiloma chersinella | Black-foot Tightcoil | Blue |
Pristiloma johnsoni | Broad-whorl Tightcoil | Blue |
Pristiloma lansingi | Denticulate Tightcoil | Yellow |
Pristiloma stearnsi | Striate Tightcoil | Yellow |
Prophysaon andersoni | Reticulate Taildropper | Yellow |
Prophysaon coeruleum | Blue-grey Taildropper | Red |
Prophysaon foliolatum | Yellow-bordered Taildropper | Yellow |
Prophysaon vanattae | Scarletback Taildropper | Blue |
Punctum randolphi | Conical Spot | Yellow |
Pupilla hebes | Crestless Column | Blue |
Striatura pugetensis | Northwest Striate | Yellow |
Succinea oregonensis | Oregon Ambersnail | Yellow |
Succinea rusticana | Rustic Ambersnail | Yellow |
Succinea strigata | Striate Ambersnail | Yellow |
Testacella haliotidea | Earshell Slug | Exotic |
Vallonia cyclophorella | Silky Vallonia | Blue |
Vallonia excentrica | Iroquois Vallonia | Exotic |
Vallonia gracilicosta | Multirib Vallonia | Yellow |
Vallonia pulchella | Lovely Vallonia | Exotic |
Vertigo andrusiana | Pacific Vertigo | Red |
Vertigo arthuri | Callused Vertigo | Blue |
Vertigo binneyana | Cylindrical Vertigo | No Status |
Vertigo columbiana | Columbia Vertigo | Yellow |
Vertigo cristata | Crested Vertigo | Yellow |
Vertigo elatior | Tapered Vertigo | Red |
Vertigo gouldi | Variable Vertigo | Yellow |
Vertigo modesta | Cross Vertigo | Yellow |
Vertigo ovata | Ovate Vertigo | Yellow |
Vespericola columbianus | Northwest Hesperian | Yellow |
Vitrea contracta | Contracted Glass-snail | Exotic |
Vitrina pellucida | Western Glass-snail | Yellow |
Zonitoides arboreus | Quick Gloss | Yellow |
Zonitoides nitidus | Black Gloss | Blue |
Zoogenetes harpa | Boreal Top | Yellow |
USEFUL LITERATURE FOR IDENTIFYING
TERRESTRIAL SNAILS AND SLUGS OF BC
Forsyth, R. G. 2004. Land Snails of British Columbia. Royal B.C. Museum Handbook. Victoria: Royal British Columbia Museum. iv, 188 pp., 8 col. pp.
Pilsbry, H. A. 1939. Land Mollusca of North America (north of Mexico), 1(1). The Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, Monographs 3: i-xvii + 1-573 + i-ix.
Pilsbry, H. A. 1940. Land Mollusca of North America (north of Mexico), 1(2). The Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, Monographs 3: viii + 994 + ix pp.
Pilsbry, H. A. 1946. Land Mollusca of North America (north of Mexico), 2(1). The Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, Monographs 3: frontis., i-vi, 1-520.
Pilsbry, H. A. 1948. Land Mollusca of North America (north of Mexico), 2(2). The Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, Monographs 3: i-xlvii + 521-1113 pp.
USEFUL LITERATURE FOR IDENTIFYING EUROPEAN SPECIES INTRODUCED TO BC
Cameron, R. 2003. Land snails in the British Isles. Field Studies Council, Occasional Publication 79: iv + 82 pp
Cameron, R. A. D., B. Eversham, & N. Jackson. 1983. A field key to the slugs of the British Isles. Field Studies 5: 807-824.
Kerney, M. P., & R. A. D. Cameron. 1979. A field guide to the land snails of Britain and north-west Europe. London: Collins. 288pp, 24 pls.
LINKS
COSEWIC assessment and status report on the Dromedary Jumping-slug, Hemphillia dromedarius, in Canada.
COSEWIC Assessment and Status Report on the Oregon Forestsnail, Allogona townsendiana, in Canada:.
COSEWIC assessment and status report on the Puget Oregonian snail, Cryptomastix devia, in Canada.
COSEWIC assessment and status report on the Warty Jumping-slug, Hemphillia glandulosa, in Canada.
Gastroclass: Gastropod classification. http://www.nhm.ac.uk/research-curation/projects/gastroclass/
Land Snails of British Columbia: http://www3.telus.net/rforsyth/
North American Land Snail Links: http://www.unc.edu/%7Ekeperez/land%20snail%20webpage.html
Terrestrial Gastropods of the Columbia Basin, British Columbia: http://www.livinglandscapes.bc.ca/cbasin/molluscs/contents.html
Terrestrial Gastropods of the Peace River – Northern Rockies of British Columbia: http://www.livinglandscapes.bc.ca/prnr/prnr_snails/index.html
Terrestrial Gastropods of the Upper Fraser Basin of British Columbia: http://www.livinglandscapes.bc.ca/upperfraserbasin/ufb_snails/index.html
Please cite these pages as:
Author, date, page title. In: Klinkenberg, Brian. (Editor) 2023. E-Fauna BC: Electronic Atlas of the Fauna of British Columbia [www.efauna.bc.ca]. Department of Geography, University of British Columbia, Vancouver. [Date Accessed]
© Copyright 2023 E-Fauna BC.