Almost outrun by a snail. Almost.

[rmb...@istar.ca]

Yesterday when I in Kingston I swung by my favourite place to pick up
some pallet wood. When I threw one piece into the back of my truck I
saw a lovely snail about the size of a loonie and thought oh, when I
get home I need to pluck that off and see what it is. Having been to
the dentist for a big session and the freezing coming out of my mouth
I forgot about it when I got home, then remembered it this morning.
The search was on. Every piece of wood taken out and thoroughly
examined. No snail. How far can a snail go overnight?? It is
depressing to think you've been outrun by a snail. A SNAIL!!
Fortunately my dog had to go out, so when we came back by the truck,
there was my snail on the side of the cap. He was making a run...or a
slither for it. So I promptly captured the beast and brought it to be
photographed and identified. According to iNaturalist it appears to
be a brown lipped snail. Close to a white lipped snail, but I took
another look at the beast and it has a brown lip. Looking at the
location map on iNat I am not seeing any others out and about, and my
google search is unsatisfactory, it says that they are common in Great
Britain. A hitch-hiker from some shipment perhaps?

Since Fred is our go-to for anything mollusc, snail or slug, I am
attaching a photo for your opinion. In the meantime, said snail-beast
is confined to a screened container. If you need better photos I can
wrangle it to pose for a better shot.

Rose-Marie

[Frederick W. Schueler]

On 04-May-23 1:05 p.m., rmb...@istar.ca wrote:

> > Since Fred is our go-to for anything mollusc, snail or slug, I am
> attaching a photo for your opinion. In the meantime, said snail-beast
> is confined to a screened container. If you need better photos I can
> wrangle it to pose for a better shot.

* no, that's fine. It is Cepaea nemoralis, with its great variety of
English names. They're ubiquitous in Ontario west of Toronto, up along
the Bruce (or now Saugeen) Peninsula. They're very variable in
coloration - except for the dark lip on the aperture - with variable
numbers of dark bands, and are abundant in Montreal with ground colours
that range from white to pink.

There are places along the 401 where they're massively abundant, and
Ottawa has Montreal-style highly coloured ones in the east, and
Toronto-style yellow ones (introduced at least by Wayne Grimm) in the
western portion of the city. Thinking they'd 'soon' be everywhere in
southern Ontario, we introduced them to Bishops Mills in 1981 and I had
78 of them alive on the road when I did the streets the day before
yesterday.

There's also Cepaea hortensis, which is very similar except for not
having the dark lip when adult, and which has been found in pre-Viking
caves on the Gaspe, and so somehow apparently made their way across the
Atlantic by themselves. There's a population at Sandbanks park, and a
19th Century population in Ottawa, near what may have been a portage,
and I'm working on the idea that it might have been founded by a snail
scraped of a long-ago canoe.

https://www.mollus.ca/cepaea-nemoralis-in-ontario/

fred.
================================================

> Yesterday when I in Kingston I swung by my favourite place to pick up
> some pallet wood.  When I threw one piece into the back of my truck I
> saw a lovely snail about the size of a loonie and thought oh, when I get
> home I need to pluck that off and see what it is.  Having been to the
> dentist for a big session and the freezing coming out of my mouth I
> forgot about it when I got home, then remembered it this morning.  The
> search was on.  Every piece of wood taken out and thoroughly examined.
> No snail.  How far can a snail go overnight??  It is depressing to think
> you've been outrun by a snail.  A SNAIL!!  Fortunately my dog had to go
> out, so when we came back by the truck, there was my snail on the side
> of the cap.  He was making a run...or a slither for it.  So I promptly
> captured the beast and brought it to be photographed and identified.
> According to iNaturalist it appears to be a brown lipped snail.  Close
> to a white lipped snail, but I took another look at the beast and it has
> a brown lip.  Looking at the location map on iNat I am not seeing any
> others out and about, and my google search is unsatisfactory, it says
> that they are common in Great Britain.  A hitch-hiker from some shipment
> perhaps?
>
>

> Rose-Marie
>

--
------------------------------------------------------------
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Fragile Inheritance Natural History - https://fragileinheritance.ca/
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6 St-Lawrence Street Bishops Mills, RR#2 Oxford Station, Ontario K0G 1T0
on the Smiths Falls Limestone Plain 44.87156° N 75.70095° W
(613)258-3107 <bckcdb at istar.ca>
------------------------------------------------------------

[rmb...@istar.ca]

Thankyou. So I can turn this critter loose guilt-free to roam about
in the wilds without worrying about introducing yet another invasive,
and I won't be obligated to set up a mini habitat and be a responsible
pet snail owner.

Rose-Marie

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[Frederick W. Schueler]

On 04-May-23 1:40 p.m., rmb...@istar.ca wrote:
> Thank you.  So I can turn this critter loose guilt-free to roam about in

> the wilds without worrying about introducing yet another invasive, and I
> won't be obligated to set up a mini habitat and be a responsible pet
> snail owner.

* well, if you don't have them now, and you do release it, it may found
a population. You could take it in to Kingston, and toss it where you
found it, or visit either of these Tim Hortons (my Kingston records),
though they're probably widespread in Kingston:

24 March 2017 - Canada: Ontario: Frontenac County: Kingston: Montreal
Road Tim Hortons, 1.75 km SE Highway 401/Division St.. (25m waypoint),
31C/8, 44.25745° N 76.48450° W TIME: 1744:51. AIR TEMP: 5°C, overcast,
Beaufort light air. HABITAT: Sumac incursion into mowed parkinglot
border along rocky berm. OBSERVER: Frederick W. Schueler, Aleta Karstad
Schueler. FWS17Mar241744/b, Cepaea nemoralis (Mollusca). 1 shell,
specimen. WAYPT/141, 23.4 mm broadly 5-banded mature yellow shell on top
of pile of sand among Rhus typhina (Staghorn Sumac) - only one seen
along 100 m of the lot.

17 September 2018 - Division St Tim Hortons, 496 m S Highway
401/Division Street. (25m waypoint), 44.26479° N 76.49909° W TIME:
1545-1549. AIR TEMP: 28°C, sunny, breezy. HABITAT: paved retail
parkinglot with curbed garden beds. OBSERVER: Frederick W. Schueler.
2018/259/d, Cepaea nemoralis (Mollusca). few shell, specimen. big
mid-banded mature & a few 5-banded juv shells on chipped bark mulch
under dense cultivated Spiraea in a curb-bound 'garden' bed.

fred.
========================================

[rmb...@istar.ca]

It is still captive, and we may be going into town tomorrow, so it'll
likely be a drive-by dropoff. It was on Dalton Ave. about 1/2 mile
from the Division St. Timmie's.

Rose-Marie

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>

[V. Kirkwood]

I love the story! And it is, indeed, a very pretty snail.

Valerie

---

Visit my fine art photography page at http://valerie-kirkwood.fineartamerica.com/