Neohelix albolabris

Neohelix albolabris
Illustration
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Mollusca
Class:	Gastropoda
Order:	Stylommatophora
Family:	Polygyridae
Genus:	Neohelix
Species:	N. albolabris
Binomial name
Neohelix albolabris (Say 1817)
Synonyms
Polygyra albolabris

Neohelix albolabris is a species of air-breathing land snail, a terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusc in the family Polygyridae.

Alternate names for Neohelix albolabris are Helix albolabris and Triodopsis albolabris. It is the first land snail to be named by an American-born naturalist, Thomas Say in 1817.

Neohelix albolabris is one of the largest native land snails in North America. Its range extends from Maine to Georgia and west to the Mississippi River. In the northern part of this range some specimens may grow to have shells 30mm in diameter. In the southern part of the range, some specimens grow to 40 mm diameter.^[1]

Early New England naturalist and illustrator Edward S. Morse reported that Helix albolabris (as he called it) was one of the three most common land snails in New England. He wrote extensively about it in his pioneering work "Land Snails of New England" which was serialized in 1867 & 1868 in the first volume of The American Naturalist.^[2]

Lateral view showing the profile of the shell of Neohelix albolabris

Basal view of the shell of Neohelix albolabris

References

1. Burch, J.B. and Jung, Younghun. "Land Snails of the University of Michigan Biological Station Area", Walkerana Volume 3, number 9. May 1988. http://molluskconservation.org/PUBLICATIONS/WALKERANA/Vol3/walkerana%20vol3%20no9%201-178.PDF
2. Morse, Edward S. "Land Snails of New England" The American Naturalist Volume 1, pages 5-16,95-100,150-151,186-188,313-315, 411-414, 541-547, 606-609 and 666-672. Available from the Internet Archive, https://archive.org/