micaelamaylatke asked: Hi! Would you be interested in posting some Lady Ross's or Violet Turacos? Also, did you ever identify that one odd green snail I asked you about forever ago? Thank you!
Fun with Mystery Terrestrial Gastropod ID
As you have I hope noticed, I’ve posted several turacos for you :3
Okay, the snail, a green tree/or terrestrial snail of some kind that has been floating around the internet for while with out label or context, seen here:
http://rhamphotheca.tumblr.com/post/11038752560/cooljeweledmoon-lol-mollusc-is-my-favorite-word
Google image search has of course (no matter what combo of words one uses) failed to produce the name of this species, nor the provenance of this snail. We must then notice certain things about it, if we are to narrow it down. It superficially resembles to me many of the australasian snails of the family Camaenidae, so that’s where I started looking. It has its eyes at the base of the sensory tentacles, instead of at the end of stalks, this isn’t terribly common. This trait and the general appearance and shape of the shell are extremely like that of the Australian White Snail (Noctepuna cerea) (look here too). N. cerea doesn’t have an lip (a raised rim) on the edge of the aperture though the way that the one in the picture does, but its similar that it may be another species of Noctepuna.
Now, the problem is we don’t even have any locale info for this snail, so it could be in any of a number of taxa. Another though I had is that it reminded me of some shells i had seen from the genus Tropidophora, family Pomatiidae, from Africa and Indian Ocean Islands, but most are endemic to Madagascar. Some recently discovered spp in Madagscar kind of resemble this, but I have only seen pictures of the shells, which have lips. A few species are described as having basal eyes like this snail, as well.
A major problem is, of course, that there isnt that much energy going into identifying and photographing LIVE terrestrial gastropods. This may be a photo manipulation and it isn’t actually green, or its an undescribed species, and/or photographed by an amateur who wouldnt/doesnt know, or some or all of the above.
It’s so similar to Noctepuna, that that’s what I’m going with. It’s prob another member of this genus. Of course, if its not from Australasia, then… :/
