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Un-named Lake/Ditch In Mandarin, Southern Duval County, Florida |
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On April 20th,
2006 this reporter received an E-mail from five year-old Quinn Riesch
(and his dad Eric) reporting that Quinn had found an applesnail in a
small lake behind his house in the Mandarin section of Duval County.
After perusing this web site, they believe it to be a specimen of
Pomacea paludosa (Say, 1829)
[Florida
Applesnail] and inquired whether it should be added to the cumulative
list of known Duval County populations.
The next morning, I visited Quinn's lake as well as a nearby associated drainage ditch immediately adjacent to 1737 Rivergate Trail (GPS 3009.186N 08139.603W). Upon arrival at the latter location, a single large fresh Pomacea paludosa egg clutch was seen on a concrete culvert where the ditch crosses beneath the road. However, an intensive search failed to yield any Pomacea specimens. I then walked upstream and a 54 mm. dead Pomacea paludosa was soon located as well as a Uniomerus carolinianus (Bosc, 1801) [Florida Pondhorn]. Quinn's lake was then investigated but no evidence of applesnails was seen in the limited portion checked. The lake was replete with dead Utterbackia imbecillis (Say, 1829) [Paper Pondshell] - a non-native species. Based upon observations, a breeding population of Pomacea paludosa is present in the area. But the lack of more egg clutches indicates that the population is quite small. |
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Quinn's lake |
Ditch upstream from the culvert |
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Culvert where the egg clutch was found |
Dead specimens from the drainage ditch |
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