The USA being such a huge region has a large variety of snails inhabiting it.From the Achatinella species in Hawaii(not covered here)
,the Liguus treesnails in Florida,the Bananaslugs of Oregon to the Mesodon species of The Great Smokey Mountains.
photo:Dr. Robert Thomas Orr © California Academy of Sciences
Banana slugs are inhabitants of woods in the westcoast area of the USA.The species
Ariolimax columbianus is distributed from Southeast Alaska,British Columbia,Washington,
Oregon to California(Plumas County).They feed on green plants,funghi,mushrooms,forest
debris and dead animals.
Another American and Canadian slugfamily is the Philomycidae,their distribution
is in the eastern states.There are about 8 species in this family.The most
common one is P.carolinianus,the Carolina Mantleslug.It can be found roughly
from Ontario(Canada)to Florida.
This region has some very notable snailfamilies for example the Polygyridae
with the genera Mesodon,Polygyra,Stenotrema and Practicolella.
Once again these are mostly genera which can be found in the eastern
States.The genus Mesomphix,form the Zonitidae family can also be found in
the eastern(southeastern)states with a few species occuring in Canada.
There are however species of snails which are
distributed throughout the whole of this region.For example:
Vertigo ventricosa,Vertigo elatior and Vertigo ovata from
the Pupillidae family.
The most colorful snails can be found in Florida,they are the Orthalicus and Liguus species from the Orthalicidae family,and
Drymaeus from the Bulimulidae family.Although some people place all genera in the Bulimulidae.Some species from the Orthalicidae family
are endemic to Florida,for example:Orthalicus floridensis and Orthalicus reses reses.
The same goes for some colorforms of Liguus fasciatus.
A family from the western states is the Oreohelicidae with to genera:Oreohelix and Radiocentrum.Oreohelix strigosa,The Rocky Mountainsnail,is the
most common species.It is distributed from British-Columbia to Arizona and the most abundant snail in The Grand Canyon.
photo:Avril Bouquin