''Helminthoglypta tudiculata'', common names the southern California shoulderband or southern shoulderband, is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of ...

of air-breathing land snail, a

terrestrial Terrestrial refers to things related to land or the planet Earth. Terrestrial may also refer to: * Terrestrial animal, an animal that lives on land opposed to living in water, or sometimes an animal that lives on or near the ground, as opposed to ...

pulmonate gastropod

mollusk Mollusca is the second-largest phylum of invertebrate animals after the Arthropoda, the members of which are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 85,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized. The number of fossil species is es ...

in the family Helminthoglyptidae. This snail is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found els ...

to the United States.

Anatomy

This species creates and uses love darts as part of its mating behavior.

References

* Taxonomy at

* Image of a mating pair at

* Image of a live individual at

Molluscs of the United States Helminthoglypta Gastropods described in 1838 {{Helminthoglyptidae-stub