This small species of woodland snail caused some consternation last year when my students, Keri Bryan and Maggie Shipley, found several in the forests around here. The shells keyed out to Ventridens pilsbryi, but we were working with dead shells, not live individuals. One diagnostic character is the color of the body — “pale yellowish with some gray along the back” (instead of “dark” as in the gularis group) according to Hubricht’s original description.
Yesterday I found a live one in some leaf litter samples that students in the Sewanee Environmental Institute had gathered. The body is light, although not yellowish.
Ventridens pilsbryi showing some body
The shell has seven or eight whorls
The two characteristic lamellae (raised ridges running back into the shell) are visible in this empty shell.
