"The Girdled Snail" "Hygromia cinctella" IR PT P3240673
Continuing the Quest
Hi Peter
I hope you are well and finding ways round this frustration of staying in.
As in the title I scan the broadlands of my 80 square meters and found this on my compost bin. I do not recall seeing anything similar before but I am hoping you can enlighten me?
www.flickr.com/photos/pitzys_pyx/49704799556/in/dateposted/
Vitrea sp ?
Best wishes
John P
TL005287 March 2020 will I-record
Hi John,
this is Hygromia cinctella (note the white margin to the whorl edge). This species was introduced to the West Country probably around 30 years ago and has since spread to many places around the UK, including Beds. Can I have the grid reference and location of your compost bin for the record?(!).
Things are very busy with me actually; supporting my wife in her role as 'online parish priest', gardening, bits of shopping (a nightmare) for isolated friends etc. A detailed survey of the garden would be good to do I guess!
Best wishes
Peter.
Hygromia cinctella, known commonly as the girdled snail, is a small European species of air-breathing land snail, native to the Mediterranean region, that belongs to the terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusk family Hygromiidae.
Description
For terms see gastropod shell Hygromia cinctella possesses a 6–7 × 10–12 mm dextral shell composed of 5–6 whorls with shallow sutures that form a high conical top and a flattened underside. The last whorl is sharply keeled. The keel has a characteristic white edge, which 'girdles' the shell, giving the snail its common name. The aperture is simple without a lip inside. The umbilicus is very narrow and almost covered by the reflected columellar margin. The shell colour is variable, from whitish grey to horny brown, often with dark spots, slightly translucent, finely and rather regularly striated. The animal is light greyish or with a yellowish hue, often with darker greyish or brownish head and tentacles.
Variation: In Sicily, colour morphs include green and yellow and reddish, also with colour bands.
Distribution
This snail is native to various European countries around the Mediterranean, including[1] south-east France, southern Switzerland, north-west Croatia, Italy, and Slovenia. It has been introduced and is becoming rapidly established in Great Britain, Austria, Czech Republic,[2] Hungary,[1] Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands and the United States. It has also been recorded in Ireland.
Hygromia cinctella was described as new to Britain by writer Alex Comfort based on specimens he had found in the Paignton area of Devon in April 1950. Subsequently, it was realised that specimens of this species had actually been found in the area from 1945 onwards, but these had been misidentified as the related species and close congener Hygromia limbata, itself a non-native species only discovered in Britain in 1919. It remained predominantly confined to the south-east of England until the mid 1970s, at which point it began to extend its range dramatically. It now has a scattered distribution which extends as far north as Scotland, the first Scottish record being in Glasgow in 2008. In Britain it seems to favour anthropogenic habitats such as gardens, hedgerows and waste ground.
Hygromia cinctella has so far been discovered at two sites in Ireland; waste ground west of Cork City and a garden near Lisburn where it appears to be persisting. The latter population is thought to have been accidentally introduced along with garden plants brought from a site near Bristol.
The Girdled Snail Hygromia cinctella. Please send records!
Harry Green
Following my note in Worcestershire Record 26 this is a further appeal for records. Please send them either to me or the WBRC through email to zen130501@zen.co.uk or to records@wbrc.org.uk or write or phone – details on back of front cover or on the back cover of Worcestershire Record. Many thanks.
This snail is travelling around the country with potted plants bought at garden centres. Once in a garden it soon becomes established. It was first reported in Worcestershire in 1996 in Little Comberton (Green 1998) and was filmed for “Midlands Today” BBC TV! The original colony is still thriving in 2010. Since then we have received records from elsewhere in the county. It is highly likely that the snail is now lurking unrecorded in many gardens and it would be useful to update our knowledge. The description given in David Green’s original report makes identification clear as follows.
Shell brown to very pale brown, except usually for a single thin pale (often pale yellow) band around the outer rim of the shell. The outer whorl often appears generally darker owing to blackish splodges. A careful look from different angles reveals (a hand lens is useful) that the outer rim is also strongly keeled (the rim is a pale outward ridge, not a more rounded shape like other snails in the garden). Size much smaller than the garden snail and hedge snails. Shell widest width about 10-12mm adult, but you might find a smaller juvenile. Shell height 7mm. Despite being smallish, Hygromia cinctella is quite distinctive with the rounded pyramidal shape above, the somewhat flattened whorl below the rim, and lighter coloured keel at the rim. Mouth viewed-head on is oval as a general shape, not round. Underneath, the umbilicus (hole in centre) is minute, partly covered by lip. The big pair of antennae are particularly long when fully extended.
GREEN, D.M. 1998. New snail to Worcestershire - Hygromia cinctella. Worcestershire Record 4: page 5, May 1998. (wbrc.org.uk/WORCRECD/Vol1Iss4/hycin.htm)
"The Girdled Snail" "Hygromia cinctella" IR PT P3240673
Continuing the Quest
Hi Peter
I hope you are well and finding ways round this frustration of staying in.
As in the title I scan the broadlands of my 80 square meters and found this on my compost bin. I do not recall seeing anything similar before but I am hoping you can enlighten me?
www.flickr.com/photos/pitzys_pyx/49704799556/in/dateposted/
Vitrea sp ?
Best wishes
John P
TL005287 March 2020 will I-record
Hi John,
this is Hygromia cinctella (note the white margin to the whorl edge). This species was introduced to the West Country probably around 30 years ago and has since spread to many places around the UK, including Beds. Can I have the grid reference and location of your compost bin for the record?(!).
Things are very busy with me actually; supporting my wife in her role as 'online parish priest', gardening, bits of shopping (a nightmare) for isolated friends etc. A detailed survey of the garden would be good to do I guess!
Best wishes
Peter.
Hygromia cinctella, known commonly as the girdled snail, is a small European species of air-breathing land snail, native to the Mediterranean region, that belongs to the terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusk family Hygromiidae.
Description
For terms see gastropod shell Hygromia cinctella possesses a 6–7 × 10–12 mm dextral shell composed of 5–6 whorls with shallow sutures that form a high conical top and a flattened underside. The last whorl is sharply keeled. The keel has a characteristic white edge, which 'girdles' the shell, giving the snail its common name. The aperture is simple without a lip inside. The umbilicus is very narrow and almost covered by the reflected columellar margin. The shell colour is variable, from whitish grey to horny brown, often with dark spots, slightly translucent, finely and rather regularly striated. The animal is light greyish or with a yellowish hue, often with darker greyish or brownish head and tentacles.
Variation: In Sicily, colour morphs include green and yellow and reddish, also with colour bands.
Distribution
This snail is native to various European countries around the Mediterranean, including[1] south-east France, southern Switzerland, north-west Croatia, Italy, and Slovenia. It has been introduced and is becoming rapidly established in Great Britain, Austria, Czech Republic,[2] Hungary,[1] Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands and the United States. It has also been recorded in Ireland.
Hygromia cinctella was described as new to Britain by writer Alex Comfort based on specimens he had found in the Paignton area of Devon in April 1950. Subsequently, it was realised that specimens of this species had actually been found in the area from 1945 onwards, but these had been misidentified as the related species and close congener Hygromia limbata, itself a non-native species only discovered in Britain in 1919. It remained predominantly confined to the south-east of England until the mid 1970s, at which point it began to extend its range dramatically. It now has a scattered distribution which extends as far north as Scotland, the first Scottish record being in Glasgow in 2008. In Britain it seems to favour anthropogenic habitats such as gardens, hedgerows and waste ground.
Hygromia cinctella has so far been discovered at two sites in Ireland; waste ground west of Cork City and a garden near Lisburn where it appears to be persisting. The latter population is thought to have been accidentally introduced along with garden plants brought from a site near Bristol.
The Girdled Snail Hygromia cinctella. Please send records!
Harry Green
Following my note in Worcestershire Record 26 this is a further appeal for records. Please send them either to me or the WBRC through email to zen130501@zen.co.uk or to records@wbrc.org.uk or write or phone – details on back of front cover or on the back cover of Worcestershire Record. Many thanks.
This snail is travelling around the country with potted plants bought at garden centres. Once in a garden it soon becomes established. It was first reported in Worcestershire in 1996 in Little Comberton (Green 1998) and was filmed for “Midlands Today” BBC TV! The original colony is still thriving in 2010. Since then we have received records from elsewhere in the county. It is highly likely that the snail is now lurking unrecorded in many gardens and it would be useful to update our knowledge. The description given in David Green’s original report makes identification clear as follows.
Shell brown to very pale brown, except usually for a single thin pale (often pale yellow) band around the outer rim of the shell. The outer whorl often appears generally darker owing to blackish splodges. A careful look from different angles reveals (a hand lens is useful) that the outer rim is also strongly keeled (the rim is a pale outward ridge, not a more rounded shape like other snails in the garden). Size much smaller than the garden snail and hedge snails. Shell widest width about 10-12mm adult, but you might find a smaller juvenile. Shell height 7mm. Despite being smallish, Hygromia cinctella is quite distinctive with the rounded pyramidal shape above, the somewhat flattened whorl below the rim, and lighter coloured keel at the rim. Mouth viewed-head on is oval as a general shape, not round. Underneath, the umbilicus (hole in centre) is minute, partly covered by lip. The big pair of antennae are particularly long when fully extended.
GREEN, D.M. 1998. New snail to Worcestershire - Hygromia cinctella. Worcestershire Record 4: page 5, May 1998. (wbrc.org.uk/WORCRECD/Vol1Iss4/hycin.htm)