Thanks for those who have replied re my question about the freshwater snails
I found in Central Park, New York. I've not been able to ID these yet. They
are much bigger than Viviparus contectoides and don't look like Pomacea.
Some of my specimens are over 7cm in length. The shells (adult) have about 6
to 6.5 whorls and are brown-dark green, with some almost approaching black.
I collected only fresh dead specimens, but live ones had an operculum. The
body whorl is globose, but not as pronounced as Viviparus. I'm sure others
must have seen these beasties in the lakes of Central Park.

It also struck me how few land snails there were. Although I didn't have the
time to do proper searching, I saw almost no land snails at all. And no
slugs. OK I'm sure they are there, but in other places I've visited where
I've had to do what I call clandestine collecting, I've turned up quite a
few species. I searched in Central Park, many flowerbeds and under rocks in
the city, and around the beds in Battery Park. As well as on Liberty and
Ellis Islands. All this to no avail. I found a snail, 1.9x2.2 cm, dead, on
ivy-covered ground, in a small green area between Park Ave and East 34th
Street. This is greenish-yellow with three dark brown bands (all on
bodywhorl). It is adult and has no umbilicus. My European 'mind snail maps'
suggests a Cepaea -like morphology (though its not, of course). A look
through my copy of Binney's American Land Shells (1885) suggests Arionta sp.
Any ideas?

To increase the chances of finding something in limited time I used two of
my 'advanced snailhunter' tips: (1) I searched for universally favoured
plants, (2) I searched for traces of snail slime. I was amazed by how many
planted areas had Hostas, these almost always attract snails and slugs. But
I saw no evidence of feeding on the leaves. I saw no snails amongst the
foliage (luckily I wasn't arrested for strange behaviour anywhere I looked),
nor on the ground below. The only clue to land mollusc presence was on an
isolated stand of Hostas near the fountain in the centre of Central Park.
There were about 5 individual slime paths of about 10cm length made by a
species with a foot no more than 5-7mm wide. But a (very) thorough search
turned up nothing.

Anyway, has anybody got experience of collecting in New York city? Have I
just been unlucky, or are there really low populations? I did notice the
universal use of tree bark in flowerbeds, a bad thing for land molluscs
(though good for the horticulturist).

On a non-shell related topic. My wife and I really enjoyed our trip. We
visited the Empire State, Statue of Liberty, Brooklyn etc.etc. did  lots of
walking and shopping, and saw the AMNH (check out the biodiversity hall, its
great). And.. there's nowhere serves a better breakfast than a diner in New
York!

Alex

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