Speaking of rooftop molluscs, I was contacted by an Ohio homeowner who said
he had millions of tiny snails in his rain gutters. He did. They were
Cochlicopa lubrica, feeding on the decomposing leaf litter. Yet another
reason to not clean your gutters. How they got there is unknown.




At 03:33 PM 6/26/2005 -0400, you wrote:
>Dear All:
>
>I was on a roof inspection in Naples, Florida the other day when I
>encountered yet another rooftop mollusc, Zachrysia provisoria (Pfeiffer).
>This snail was introduced from Cuba. There were three specimens, all dead
>and in various states of desiccation. The gravel cover was crushed native
>limestone. My first thought was that they had scaled the building in search
>of lime for their shell production. This did not seem likely because of the
>30 feet of blacktop pavement between the building and the landscaping. I
>then found two individuals with cracked shells on the pavement next to the
>building. I suspect that birds may be dropping the snails from the sky to
>crack them open for consumption. I noticed a few ravens picking around near
>the trees behind the plaza, but did not see them interact with any snails.
>
>Are there any reports of ravens doing this?
>
>I took some photos if anyone is interested,
>and I collected a few empty shells from the brush
>(will send 1 pair each to 1st responders).
>Contact me off list.
>
>Yours, Andrew Vik
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>
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G. Thomas Watters, PhD
Curator of Molluscs
Museum of Biological Diversity
The Ohio State University
1315 Kinnear Road
Columbus, OH 43212  USA
v: 614-292-6170
f: 614-292-7774
[log in to unmask]

Visit the Mollusc Division at:
http://www.biosci.ohio-state.edu/~molluscs/OSUM2

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