Thursday Invertebrate Blogging: Escargot Edition

Since my posting has been a bit sluggish lately, I thought I would feature everyone's favorite symbol of slow but steady movement - our friend the garden snail.

This specimen was photographed on a recent drizzly day, making his way across a richly hued dry oak leaf. The turning of the leaves is still several weeks away, but perhaps the return of cooler, drier air this weeks portends a stunningly beautiful autumn.  After being "mugged" by the weather for most of July and August, I'm sure autumn can't come too soon for most New Yorkers.

Identifying land snails is not my specialty, so I can't offer a species name for this specimen. However, I hope it isn't Theba pisana aka the "white garden snail," a Mediterranean invader that can cause significant agricultural damage. Most of the information I can find on that snail suggests it is more of a pest in California than it is here.

On the other hand, according to this rather bizarre eGullet forum, T. pisana, despite its small size, is a gastropod for the gastronome. Several members vouched for its tasty goodness. The following post is typical:

Actually, the small Theba pisana is basically popular in Andalucía, so we may have something there! It's not "tiny", really, but it's small enough to be basically used in soups and stews (caracol de caldo, or broth snail, is its popular Andalusian name). The most popular snails in Spain are the common snail, Cantareus asperus (a.k.a. Helix aspersa) and the smaller, revered Iberus gualterianus, the vaqueta mountain snail that is so indispensible for a classic paella valenciana.

Perhaps the next time I'm strolling in snail territory, I'll bring some garlic butter along with my camera.

Come out of your shell and visit the Friday Ark!.

Comments

[dope]

Beautiful macro of the little guy!
Thanks!

That was taken with a Canon 100 mm f2.8 USM Macro lens. Ironically, he was moving much too fast to increase the depth of field. I think the blurred focus actually makes it more ethereal. How's that for photographic rationalization?

The poor artist blames his tools.

The crafty artist claims every mistake was intentional.

[dope]

Cepaea nemoralis!

My old friend from way back when I was responsible for the aquatic invertebrate database at TVA.

There were several mollusk studies to determine the abundance of various gastropods and mussels in the watershed. I was more of an insect guy, but I remember my buddy Bob dramatically reading out the species names from the summary reports I would generate to see if the results of my program matched the raw data. Pleurocera canaliculata was one that he pronounced with particular relish (he was a cunning linguist).

Anyhoo, I recall that C. nemoralis would occassionally show up in the samples. A lot of these studies were done in fairly small rivers and streams in the Tennessee Valley, and I imagine the little buggers were abundant in vegetation at the waters edge. Perhaps the also got into the river via the guts of weasels, raccoons and otters.

[Tim Pearce]

Regarding the species identity, it looks like something that would have a reflected lip, or at least thickened lip, as an adult, so whatever it is, it is likely to be a juvenile.
The single band reminds me of Bradybaena similaris, an invasive snail fropm Asia more common in Florida and other parts of the southern USA than in NY. However, I don't think B. similaris would survive the cold winters of New York. Besides, the shell seems too tall (relative to width) to be B. similaris.
Instead, I am going to put my guess on juvenile Cepaea. Although they can have up to 5 color bands, single banded (or even unbanded) individuals are quite common. The more common one in the New York area is C. nemoralis, an introduced species from Europe. A less common one is C. hortensis, which is considered native since it was on the New England coast before Columbus arrived, but additional populations have since been introduced.
That's my guess.

[Aydin]

One more thing. You mentioned Chocolate Stout in the comment you left on my blog. I already reviewed that beer:
http://snailstales.blogspot.com/2005/06/friday-nites-beer-review-black.html

[Aydin]

Nice. You can see its veins thru the shell.

I am not sure if it's T. pisana.

[The Fixer]

Now I'm hungry.

[Sunidesus]

Beautiful macro of the little guy!