Dear James:
You described, quite well, Euglandina rosea (Ferussac, 1821), pictured
on page 86 of Tucker Abbott's Compendium of Landshells.  There is also a
nice comment by Pilsbry in his Land Mollusca. . . book, volume II, pp.
188-195 on the mollusc's well developed sense of smell and great speed
(for a land snail) when tracking down food.  They range from South
Carolina to Louisiana.  The so called Rosy Glandina, Tucker had to give
a common name to everything, is quite a hungry carnivore.  In an attempt
to curtail Acanthina fulica, which spread from Africa throughout the
Indo-Pacific islands, someone had the bright idea to introduce
Euglandina to eat the Acathina.  Unfortunately, the Euglandina is a
carnivore on the indigenous snails on those islands, so as often with
many things mans tries to do, his cure is worse than the disease.
When I was thirteen, my family brought back a live Euglandina from
Florida to our home in the midwest, and since we found it on the banks
of a lake, and since we were shell collectors and knew ALL shells lived
in water, we tossed the snail into our freshwater aquarium.  The snail,
of course, crawled out.  We threw him back in.  Could not figure out why
the snail did not appreciate it when we tried to drown him.  Now that I
live in Florida, I sometimes find them attached to the wood door frame
of my front door.
Kurt Auffenburg, who is currently buying rounds for the fiddler crabs on
Cedar Key, and one of the better 'landers' on the net might provide you
some more data on this interesting pest.
 
Alan Gettleman
Merritt Island, FL
 
James M Cheshire wrote:
>
> Dear all, today, I decided i would try and find some garden mollusks.
> I was extremely successful. I got about 7 of what I would consider common
> garden snails, and I managed to find a beautiful land snail that was
> about 1 1/2"
> in length. I need all you land snail experts to help me with
> identification. The large
> snail is orange-amber color and is approximately 34mm in length. It has
> about 3 whorls,
> and the aperture is faintly pearly when viewed from a certain angle.
> Small striations cover
> the shell vertically. The collumella is curved to the right, and is
> abruptly cut off at it's base.
> The body whorl is large and fairly elongate. Spire is short.
> I live in the west florida panhandle, so focus on snails mainly from that
> area.
> If you know what this species is, let me know where to look for live
> specimens, as they are
> quite obscure.
>
> Thanks,
> James C.