Neohelix albolabris

Neohelix albolabris is a species of air-breathing land snail, a terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusk in the family Polygyridae.

Neohelix albolabris
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Mollusca
Class:
Gastropoda
(unranked):
clade Heterobranchia
clade Euthyneura
clade Panpulmonata
clade Eupulmonata
clade Stylommatophora
informal group Sigmurethra
Superfamily:
Helicoidea
Family:
Polygyridae
Genus:
Neohelix
Species:
N. albolabris
Binomial name
Neohelix albolabris
(Say 1817)
Synonyms

Polygyra albolabris

Alternate names for Neohelix albolabris are Helix albolabris and Triodopsis albolabris. It is the first land snail to be named by an American-born naturalist, Thomas Say in 1817.

N. albolabris is one of the largest native land snails in North America. Its range extends from Maine to Georgia and west to the Mississippi River. In the northern part of this range some specimens may grow to have shells 30mm in diameter. In the southern part of the range, some specimens grow to 40 mm diameter.[1]

Early New England naturalist and illustrator Edward S. Morse reported that Helix albolabris (as he called it) was one of the three most common land snails in New England. He wrote extensively about it in his pioneering work "Land Snails of New England" which was serialized in 1867 & 1868 in the first volume of The American Naturalist.[2]

Lateral view showing the profile of the shell of Neohelix albolabris
Basal view of the shell of Neohelix albolabris

In 2010 Elisabeth Tova Bailey wrote The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating, an award-winner book protagonised by an individual land snail in the species Neohelix albolabris, from which was taken a short movie.[3]

References
  1. Burch, J.B. and Jung, Younghun. "Land Snails of the University of Michigan Biological Station Area", Walkerana Volume 3, number 9. May 1988. http://molluskconservation.org/PUBLICATIONS/WALKERANA/Vol3/walkerana%20vol3%20no9%201-178.PDF
  2. Morse, Edward S. "Land Snails of New England" The American Naturalist Volume 1, pages 5-16,95-100,150-151,186-188,313-315, 411-414, 541-547, 606-609 and 666-672. Available from the Internet Archive, https://archive.org/
  3. "The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating". CinemAmbiente. Retrieved 2019-12-03.
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