Critically Endangered
Banded dune snail
Helminthoglypta walkeriana
The name stems from the fact that the snails have distinctive spiral shells that are usually banded in different colors.
Appearance
The name stems from the fact that the snails have distinctive spiral shells that are usually banded in different colors. The shells are typically mostly brown, however they can also be a variety of other colors.
Range and habitat
The species is endemic to the area around the cities of Morro Bay and Los Osos in the central coast in San Luis Obispo County and Santa Barbara County, in California. On the other hand, the Chorro Shoulderband snail can also be found in grassland communities and rocky areas. It has also been found that there is a correlation between the Chorro Shoulderband's occurrence and clay and serpentine soils.
The IUCN Red List considers the snail critically endangered, and NatureServe considers it imperiled.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Diet
Although no study specific to the banded dune snails diet has been performed, it can be assumed that they have similar diets to those of the Helminthoglypta in similar locations, that consists of dead and decaying plant material. Prior to mating, that occurs after the first significant downpours of the wet season, they often engage in courtship behaviors to attract partners, that may include the exchange of pheromones.
In crisis
This snail was placed on the United States' Endangered Species List in 1994. The USFWS recommends that the Morro shoulderband be downlisted to threatened status and the Chorro shoulderband be delisted.
Banded dune snail is Critically Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.
Sources
Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Banded dune snail, Wikidata item Q3076450. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.
