Terrestrial snail population assessment in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas

• In Event: Conservation Ecology Oral Session & Section Meeting

Abstract

Land snails are easily overlooked, but immensely important, inhabiting many habitats. There has not been a comprehensive census of terrestrial snail populations in Texas. Most past collections primarily targeted single species, usually focusing on large snails (> 5 mm maximum adult size). The result is a lack of current and accurate knowledge of the status of land snail populations across Texas and, consequently, questionable conservation status rankings for several terrestrial snail species. Understanding the abundance and occurrence of snail species will help update our understanding of the status of Texas land snail populations and base conservation rankings on high-quality data. We have visited over 40 localities within the Rio Grande Valley, collecting snails by hand and in leaf litter samples to quantify macro- and microsnail relative abundance. To date, we have collected and identified 16,253 total individuals in the Rio Grande Valley. On average, sites possessed 10 species, ranging from 2 to 18. The Sabal Palms thornscrub Sanctuary in Brownsville, Cameron County possessed the highest species richness. Guppya gundlachi was the most common species found at the Sabal Palms site.

Authors

• Briante Najev, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley

• Jeff Nekola, University of New Mexico

• Ben Hutchins, Texas Parks and Wildlife

• Alison Schofield, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley

• Kathryn Elizabeth Perez, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley