Saturday's snails

I went to the C&O Canal area last Saturday to photograph snails. My specific destination was the pond pictured above. I had been there during the Potomac Gorge Bioblitz last June. This is where Tim Pearce found Pomatiopsis lapidaria during the Bioblitz. I wanted to photograph them in their habitat and while searching for them, I found other snails as well. I will post on P. lapidaria on another occasion, but here are a couple of the other snails I saw.


This is a juvenile Mesodon thyroidus, a rather common species around here. Those dark spots that may appear to be on the shell are actually on the snail's mantle; they show thru the shell, because the shell is more or less transparent. We had already recorded this species during the Bioblitz.


But the little Vertigo (only about a couple of mm long) was a nice surprise and a new record for the area. I found both species on the mud within a meter of the edge of the water. The area is visible in the pond picture at the far end towards the left. Based on its habitat, I am suspecting it is Vertigo ovata, a species of wet, muddy places.

I also photographed the new canal boat.