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Daedalochila auriculata (Say, 1818) Ocala Liptooth At Twelve Mile Swamp |
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St. Johns County, Florida |
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On December 26,
2008, this reporter visited the Twelve Mile Swamp area on
International Golf Parkway (also known as Nine Mile Road) between
Interstate 95 and US-1 in St. Johns County while engaged in an ongoing
project to locate additional sites housing a population of
Daedalochila auriculata. A cursory reconnaissance of the same
area had been conducted on 10/26/2008, but due to wet conditions, a
search for snails was not conducted. During the recent visit, it was discovered that county workers had recently groomed the roadside swales thus leaving little in the way of visual clues as to where to begin a search for Deadalochila. However, a small pond was eventually located near the road that provided a permanent source of water - a feature that Daedalochila auriculata seem to find alluring. Finally, after a half-hour search, a single empty D. auriculata shell was found in the swale on the south side of the road (GPS: 3000.024N 08125.029W - WGS-84 Datum). An intense search of the area for additional specimens proved unsuccessful. During a follow-up visit to the site on 9/6/2009 one further empty D. auriculata shell was found very near where the previous specimen had been found some eight months earlier. Two additional empty shells (one adult and one juvenile) were found during during a subsequent follow-up visis on 9/13/2009. |
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Daedalochila habitat on the south side of International Golf Parkway (12/26/2008) |
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Daedalochila auriculata From Twelve Mile Swamp (13.9 mm. for the top specimen and 14.3 mm. for the bottom specimen) |
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