Snails of the world:The Caribbean

The snails of Jamaica/Haiti,Cuba,Central- and South-America are covered on seperate pages.
Once again the family Camaenidae is present here with species of the genera Pleurodonte and Polydontes.This is also the most northern area
where you can find Strophocheilus of the family Strophocheilidae.

The subfamily Amphibuliminae,family Bulimulidae,has some species of the genera Amphibulima and Pellicula particular to this area.
Some snails of the Oleacinidea,carnivorous snails can be found here.The family Urocoptidae is well represented in this region.
The family Clausiliidae is especially present with the subfamily Neniinae,it has 16 genera with more than 130 species.The shells are sinistral.
   
Polydontes obliteratus        Oleacina voluta            Anostoma sp.
(Photo:A.Sanchez)                         (Photo:A.Sanchez)

One example of the Odontostomidae family is Anostoma octodentata.An endemic family is Systrophiidae,a group of carnivorous snails with 
shells of up to 10 mm.
On the Bahama's,Cuba,The Caymans,Puerto Rico and The Florida Keys Cerion(Cerionidae) snails
appear in large numbers.They are called peanut snails because they look like...a peanut.Although hundreds of species have been described 
there are only about 10 real species.The others are subspecies or forms only found locally.

Cerion striatella in Puerto Rico
photo:(c)Alejandro Sanchez

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