Identification needed.

[Kevin]

This is the snail I got from Belgium as an Archachatina purpurea...I'm fairly certain it isnt a purpurea though. I'd like to know what it could be. His columella is purple, his shell length is currently around 6cm, at the moment he's growing really well.





some older pictures...







I have no information on whether he is captive bred, or wild caught, the person I got him from, who lives in Belgium had told me that he had the snail sent to him and told its a purpurea.

[Deleted]

awwww what a cute little wuv wuv.

I'd say degneri...

[sonicsnail]

I agree, it does look like a degneri.

[Paul]

It looks very like the ventricosa we got from Lucy. Still not sussed out what it is btw. I need to see a full grown one to see what the shell lip is like, and more importantly I need to see a sub-adult/adult margie with the periostracum in tact for me to use a baseline. If I can do that, perhaps I can start ruling out margies which would be a great start. But degneri or ventricosa looks the most probably and as I can't see any texture on the shell, degneri does seem the most likely. It looks far too ventricose for a purpurea. Plus the final size will help us rule them out.

[Deleted]

Paul, what does an adult ventricosa actually look like? i'm not very clear on this...

[sezzy5889]

don't ventri's have a deep purple columella though not pink?

[Kevin]

sezzy5889 said:

don't ventri's have a deep purple columella though not pink?

The snail in the pictures has a purple columella, the same as the ventricosa, part of it appears more brighter than it actually is in the picture.

[Paul]

The problem is that all of the purple-lipped snails are very similar. Degneri tend to have more orangey-red, ventricosa more pinky-purple but they can apparently cross over.

Mike, I'd say the snails apple got are ventricosa. It's hard to see the difference between normal and speculatum. Supposedly speculatum have more coarse texture, but in some pictures they are very similar. Some pictures show normal ventricosa quite rough, some fairly smooth. Have a look on Achatinidae.com also at the shell pictures. As you can see, there are pictures of each type of purple-mouthed snails that when put together look very similar. It is really frustrating.

I need to actually see and touch at least 1 of each (confirmed) to really understand the differences. It isn't all bad though. Once we can rule out margies, which I think we will be able to, there are really two clear groups once they are fully grown.

Ventricosa and Degneri share a very similar shape and are large. So hopefully with degneri being smooth and ventricosa being rougher that should determine them better. Also ventricosa are more likely to be pink/purple and it extends further down more often.

That leaves rhodostoma and purpurea by virtue of their smaller size and slender profile. We should be able to tell them apart once fully grown by the texture of purpurea being coarser than rhodostoma and that purpurea doesn't grow a reinforced, thickened or flared lip.

Unfortunately, juveniles or small varieties will be very difficult to determine between.

[Deleted]

oh I thought speculatum was green shelled and normal ventricosa was brown shelled

[Paul]

Bequaert questions if there should be a sub-species as they are so similar...

"As. A ventricosa is rather variable in size, shape and sculpture, speculatum may well represent individual extreme variants of this species. Too few specimens with reliable localities are known, however, to reach a final conclusion at present; so that I provisionally retain speculatum with subspecific status. It seems to differ from the nominate race of ventricosa only in being relatively more slender, with less convex body-whorl, more raised spire and the aperture higher in proportion to the width. It also has nearly one whorl more for the same size. "

I got mixed up with some other details, perhaps because in the notes it concentrates on, it's alikeness to purpurea is mentioned numerous times. The interior of the shell is lighter. And it mentions a way of discerning between purpurea and degneri, by looking at granulation. But after reading it now, I'm not sure it is reliably more or less coarse.

It's hard to get to the bottom, because there is no standard to the info for each species. You have to try and logically infer the differences.

[Paul]

In fact this speculatum may cause us many headaches because it did the malacologists and its shape and size may cause us headaches in ruling out species like rhodostoma and purpurea.

[sezzy5889]

what the bloomin hell does rhodostoma look like, it's already given me headaches trying to find a pic or info on one, do you have a pic?

[Deleted]

ID'ing snails is so fun

[sezzy5889]

lol

[Paul]

Like a slightly slimmer, less convex ventricosa

But, I only have a few black and white photos. Apparently they have very little shell texture, told apart from degneri because and they are slimmer and smaller.

To be honest there isn't much in it, which is why locality makes a huge difference. I'm still waiting for Albert Mead to announce what species are still viable. Most of the categorising was done by just looking at shells. Who knows what real species, identified by the sex organs there really are.

[Paul]

lotsofsnails said:

ID'ing snails is so fun

I feel quite positive about it all. Certain things are slotting into place better and I feel like I understand a lot more recently. The trouble is that I'm limited to looking at what species I have. Like the chance to study all the new species coming up would be great, but unless I get them then resell them I'm not gonna have room.

I may have to make a little space anyway actually. I have 6 growing tigers, and I expected at least half to die because tiger babies had always had such a bad track record. But they're all doing fantastically so I may have to rehome a few.

If I did decide I'd probably rehome:

3 or 4 tiger juveniles.
1 fairly young reticulata
1 fairly young "ventricosa"
Both my panthera "stuhlmanni".

This'll be in the spring, when I have some of those cute suturalis babies to send out.

[Paul]

That is why I need you guys to help me document each species as clearly and accurately as possible. I'd suggest getting a 20x magnifying glass. Mine cost £4 inc. postage from ebay. And then we've got to try and take photos through it which is tricky. If we could do that, we'd have a much better chance of sharing the task.

[sezzy5889]

Oo keep me in mind for 1 tiger, 1 reti and 1 stuhlmanni please, if thats ok obviously?

[LisaLQ]

Paul, if at all possible, would you bear me in mind for a tiger? I know there's many others here that you know better, so of course they'd come first.

Sorry for being cheeky. Have got my suturalis now

[Paul]

lisalq said:

Paul, if at all possible, would you bear me in mind for a tiger?

I don't see why not, I don't actually know that many people better than just reading their posts lol. Either way, I try and be fair, you're more likely to get a snail off me if you haven't before or you haven't had the chance to get some less common types. I've seen your calls for tiger babies, so if I do sell them, I'll keep you in mind for one, sure.

[section8angel]

Sod the niceness, GIMME A TIGER!!

Rofl. Just kidding ;D They're probably pretty big aren't they?

I will get some in spring. I will. I don't care who from, I just want some. Under 5 inches is perfect lol.

As for the id-ing, do you want us to take pictures of all our species? Or do you just mean those who have unidentified snails?

[LisaLQ]

admin said:

I don't see why not, I don't actually know that many people better than just reading their posts lol. Either way, I try and be fair, you're more likely to get a snail off me if you haven't before or you haven't had the chance to get some less common types. I've seen your calls for tiger babies, so if I do sell them, I'll keep you in mind for one, sure.

Thanks Paul - that's very kind of you. ;D

[sezzy5889]

het hem, i'd like to say thanks too please ;D

Well of course i will keep you in mind for those snails Sarah

Wow thank you ever so much Paul

;D

[Paul]

sezzy5889 said:

het hem, i'd like to say thanks too please ;D

Well of course i will keep you in mind for those snails Sarah

Wow thank you ever so much Paul

;D

Sorry, didn't see that. Sure no probs.

[sezzy5889]

lol, cheers