Vespericola is a genus of air-breathing land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod molluscs in the family Polygyridae.

Vespericola
Drawing: three views of a shell of Vespericola columbiana
from W. G. Binney, 1878[1]
Photograph: three views of a shell of Vespericola armigera
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Gastropoda
Order: Stylommatophora
Family: Polygyridae
Genus: Vespericola
Pilsbry, 1939

Habitat

edit

These snails are found along the Pacific Coast of North America, from southern Alaska and British Columbia to California.

Shell description

edit

The shells of these small to medium, globose or depressed globose snails are usually some shade of brown, sometimes without apertural teeth and sometimes with a single tooth on the parietal wall. Small periostracal hairs may be observed on the shell surface of many specimens, but the shells otherwise resemble those of Praticolella or Mesodon.[2]

Anatomy

edit

According to Pilsbry (1940), Vespericola "differs from all other Polygyridae by the possession of a well-developed though rather short verge, and by the peculiar shape of the epiphallus".[3]

Species

edit

Species within the genus Vespericola include:[2][4]

References

edit
  1. ^ Binney, William G. (1878). The Terrestrial Air-Breathing Mollusks of the United States and Adjacent Territories of North America. Vol. 5 (plates). Bull. Mus. Comparative Zool., Harvard. Plate 13a.
  2. ^ a b Pilsbry, Henry A. 1940. Land Mollusca of North America (North of Mexico). Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, Monograph 3, vol. 1(2): 892-912.
  3. ^ Pilsbry, Henry A. 1940. Land Mollusca of North America (North of Mexico). Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, Monograph 3, vol. 1(2): 892.
  4. ^ [1] Vespericola at ITIS (Integrated Taxonomic Information System); accessed 5 Feb. 2008.