New: The Pot Fouling Project (and already a new snail!)

One day into the new project, already something interesting. A first on iNat for the SF Bay Area: Southern Flatcoil Snail. This snail was in a plant nursery in Cupertino, Santa Clara County, CA: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/101369553

https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/the-pot-fouling-project

Please join The Pot Fouling Project if you are interested in land snails and slugs, mushrooms and other fungi, salamanders and newts, millipedes, centipedes, spiders, insects, terrestrial worms, etc. Anything that lives under a human-made garden container is fair game to add to this project. Urban or rural as long as it's under something, so check out nurseries, public gardens, etc. And perhaps it will help scientists track invasive species too, so yay for that.

Pots (and nurseries) remind me a little of the man-made marinas and harbors where I go dock-fouling; they might provide "safe harbor" for non-native species to establish themselves through inadvertent introduction. AKA Ground Zero.

Able to help on the snail?: Rookie question: Southern Flatcoils are widespread across the Southern US, including Southern California, but I have yet to find a record of them in the San Francisco Bay Area, which strikes me as weird. They do not appear in Roth & Sadeghian's checklist, but I can't imagine this is really the first record of them here. If you are a California land snail expert - and I'm looking very hopefully at you @jannvendetti @cedric_lee @pliffgrieff @thomaseverest @tlawson @susanhewitt @finatic @oksnaillaboratory - could you please weigh in on this if you have a chance?

Posted on November 18, 2021 05:21 PM by anudibranchmom anudibranchmom

Observations

Photos / Sounds

What

Southern Flatcoil (Polygyra cereolus)

Observer

anudibranchmom

Date

November 17, 2021 03:58 PM PST

Description

Found in plant nursery, many plants sourced from Southern California and possibly beyond.

Comments

I personally have not seen this species in Northern California however nothing surprises me when it comes to this specific species. It’s very prolific. You can’t turn over a rock in the Hawaiian islands without finding this very invasive species.

Posted by tlawson over 2 years ago

@tlawson Dang, that's too bad. BTW I've saved the specimen (alive, for now at least) in case anyone is keen on writing a range extension paper; I'm not ;-).

Posted by anudibranchmom over 2 years ago

I'm not even sure there are published records of P. cereolus in California as it's been introduced pretty recently. ID looks correct, but I don't know the lookalikes well enough to be 100% sure. Either way nice find! And cool project!

Posted by thomaseverest over 2 years ago

Phil and Lindsey Groves first documented the species in California in their 2012 article (linked below). Your observation could very well be a new county record @anudibranchmom.

https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/195184#page/239/mode/1up

Posted by cedric_lee over 2 years ago

@cedric_lee Who would I send the snail to? Lindsey? @pliffgrieff do you have any interest (range extension)?

Posted by anudibranchmom over 2 years ago

Either Jann Vendetti or Barry Roth if they are interested.

Posted by cedric_lee over 2 years ago

I'm sure @jannvendetti would be very interested in vouchering the specimen at the museum.

Posted by pliffgrieff over 2 years ago

Thanks Phil! I sent her a message.

Posted by anudibranchmom over 2 years ago

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