''Anguispira fergusoni'', also known as the coastal plain tigersnail or coastal plain disk, is a

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

pulmonate Pulmonata or pulmonates is an informal group (previously an order, and before that, a subclass) of snails and slugs characterized by the ability to breathe air, by virtue of having a pallial lung instead of a gill, or gills. The group inclu ...

land snail A land snail is any of the numerous species of snail that live on land, as opposed to the sea snails and freshwater snails. ''Land snail'' is the common name for terrestrial molluscs, terrestrial gastropod mollusks that have gastropod shell, shel ...

in the family

Discidae Discidae is a taxonomic family of small air-breathing land snails, terrestrial gastropod mollusks in the superfamily Punctoidea. Genera The family Discidae has no subfamilies. Genera within the family Discidae include: * '' Anguispira'' Morse, ...

, the disk snails. It is found in multiple states along the east coast of the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

Appearance

The shell of the coastal plain tigersnail is heliciform in shape, and slightly flattened. It is fairly smooth and glossy, with minimal striation, and ranges from 15 to 18 mm in diameter. The shell is typically pale yellow in color and covered in brown or dark red splotches that radiate outwards across the snail's

whorls A whorl ( or ) is an individual circle, oval, volution or equivalent in a whorled pattern, which consists of a spiral or multiple concentric objects (including circles, ovals and arcs). In nature File:Photograph and axial plane floral diagram ...

.Pilsbry, Henry A. (1948). ''Land Mollusca of North America (North of Mexico)''. Vol. 2, Part 2. Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. This snail is most visually similar to '' Anguispira alternata''. However, its shell is typically smaller, its whorls are rounder, and its mucus secretions are clear compared to the saffron-colored mucus of ''A. alternata''.

Ecology

Populations of coastal plain tigersnail have been located in

South Carolina South Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders North Carolina to the north and northeast, the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast, and Georgia (U.S. state), Georg ...

North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...

, and

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

. It is listed as critically endangered in Pennsylvania, near threatened in Virginia, and least concern in North Carolina. The coastal plain tigersnail is endemic to the east coast of the United States, specifically the

Atlantic Coastal Plain The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the ...

. The species has gradually moved up through the floodplains of larger rivers into the interior of the Piedmont region. As its name suggests, populations are found in

coastal plains A coastal plain (also coastal plains, coastal lowland, coastal lowlands) is an area of flat, low-lying land adjacent to a sea coast. A fall line commonly marks the border between a coastal plain and an upland area. Formation Coastal plains can fo ...

, around the

fall line A fall line (or fall zone) is the area where an upland region and a coastal plain meet and is noticeable especially the place rivers cross it, with resulting rapids or waterfalls. The uplands are relatively hard crystalline basement rock, and the ...

. Within these plains, snails are typically found around or in rotting logs, hollow trees, or in the leaf litter in deciduous forested areas. They may form large clusters or colonies of individuals around large

senescent Senescence () or biological aging is the gradual deterioration of functional characteristics in living organisms. Whole organism senescence involves an increase in death rates or a decrease in fecundity with increasing age, at least in the ...

trees with trunk cavities. Populations have also been located in urban environments like the

New York metro area The New York metropolitan area, also called the Tri-State area and sometimes referred to as Greater New York, is the largest metropolitan economy in the world, with a gross metropolitan product of over US$2.6 trillion. It is also the lar ...

. In 2008, the snail was discovered to be preyed on by the larvae of the parastitic sciomyzid fly '' Pherbellia albovaria''.Örstan, Aydın. "Larva of the sciomyzid fly Pherbellia albovaria preys on the land snail Anguispira fergusoni." ''Triton'' 18 (2008): 37.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q3694412 Gastropods of North America Gastropods described in 1862 Discidae