Virginia Land Snails

Photo(s): Paravitrea blarina shell by Dan Dourson ©.

Click photo(s) to enlarge.

Paravitrea blarina Hubricht, 1963

Family Pristilomatidae
Common name: Shrew Supercoil

Identification
Width: 3.5-4.5 mm
Height: 2-2.5 mm
Whorls: 5+

Paravitrea blarina is a white-colored animal with a shiny, dome-shaped, yellowish shell. The thin-lipped aperture is equally as high as it is wide. Irregularly spaced radial striae and growth wrinkles are seen on the top of the shell but grow much fainter on the base. The open umbilicus is deep and well-like, with a diameter that is relatively large in comparison with most other species in the genus; it is about one-fifth the diameter of the shell. The shell of P. blarina lacks teeth at any stage of growth.

Ecology
This animal likes to burrow in the lower layers of decaying leaf litter on hillsides (Hubricht, 1963; 1985). It has been found under leaf litter inside burrows created by shrews, the source of its common name.

Taxonomy
There are no synonyms.

Distribution
Paravitrea blarina is known only from a handful of counties in Virginia, Tennessee, and Kentucky. In Virginia it is reported only from Lee County.

NatureServe Global Rank: G3
NatureServe State Rank: S1
Virginia’s wildlife action plan: Tier II

 

Meegan Winslow, Ken Hotopp 11/12

Range Map