Virginia Land Snails

Click photo(s) to enlarge.

Vertigo teskeyae Hubricht, 1961

Family: Vertiginidae

Identification
Height: ~2.6 mm
Width: ~ 1.6 mm
Whorls: 4-5

Vertigo teskeyae has a large, shiny shell, a strong callus on the palatal wall of the aperture, and at least six apertural lamellae, similar to Vertigo ovata. It differs from that species in its more basally obese shell, shallower suture, and columellar wall of the aperture that is angled away from the shell axis.

Ecology
Individuals are most commonly seen crawling on open mud and water-saturated logs in floodplain forests and along rivers, ponds, and lake shores following water level drawdown in mid to late summer. They are also occasionally found in leaf or grass litter adjacent to boggy pools and streams, in cypress swamps and other wooded wetlands (Nekola & Coles, 2010).

Distribution
Vertigo teskeyae ranges across the southeastern states from the Delmarva Peninsula and southern Florida west to eastern Oklahoma and northeastern Texas. In Virginia this species is currently known only from the Great Dismal Swamp. However, it should be expected along the entire eastern seaboard, in particular the counties to the east of the Chesapeake Bay.

NatureServe Global Rank: G5
NatureServe State Rank: S1S3
Virginia’s wildlife action plan: Tier IV

 

Jeff Nekola 9/2012

Range Map