Data:

" hi, my name is jo. i don't know anything about mollusc or gastropods, but recently i was reading an archaeology article from a site in pr and they include a long list of m & g. I realize that some of those were lands species, but they never explain which ones nor which of all the species mentioned were edible.

i'd been looking through your site and i don't see to find the species that i believe are terrestial. can you check the list for me and confirm that they are terrestial and if possible to tell me if they are edible?"

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hi avril

thanks for the links, i'll try them during the weekend. however, any other information that you get i'll truly apprecciated. if you can't find references about then being consume, at least let me know if any of them can be discarded as a food source due to foul taste, for being poisonous or any other reason.

Send Ideas to: johanna

1) Alcadia sp (Superfamily Neritacea -Family: Helicinidae)

• Terrestrial

2) Alcadia striata (Lamarck, 1822) (Superfamily Neritacea -Family: Helicinidae)

• Terrestrial

May be extinct
Common Name: striate drop

3) Bulimulus exilis ((Gmelin, 1791) ) (Superfamily Bulimulacea Family -Orthalicidae)
Bulimulus guadalupensis (west indian bulimulus)

• Terrestrial

  Syn: Helix exilis Gmelin, 1791
  

• Bulimulus guadalupensis (west indian bulimulus) see:
  http://www.jaxshells.org/bbj01.htm   http://www.jaxshells.org/scan35.htm

4) Chondropoma sp (Cerithioidea Family - Pomatidae)

• Terrestrial

http://www.conchology.be/en/availableshells/searchresultsgallery.php?family=POMATIIDAE

5) Drymaeus sp (Family -Bulimulidae)

• Tree Snail

  http://creatures.ifas.ufl.edu/misc/gastro/tree_snails.htm#ident
  http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/classification/Drymaeus.html

6) Megalomastoma croceum (J. F. Gmelin, 1791) (Superfamily Cyclophoracea Family - Megalostomatidae)

• Terrestrial
• Common Name: ??Saffron Megalomouth

  http://www.ne.jp/asahi/dexter/sinister/gallery/family/Megalomastomidae.html

7) Pleurodonte sp (Superfamily Helicacoidea Family - Camaenidae)

• Terrestrial
  

http://www.ne.jp/asahi/dexter/sinister/gallery/genera/Pleurodonte.html
http://pick4.pick.uga.edu/mp/20q?search=Pleurodonte+anomala&guide=Molluscs

8) Pleurodonte caracolla(Linnaeus, 1758 ) (Family - Camaenidae)

• Terrestrial

World Wide Conchology Family Camaenidae
http://www.conchology.be/
Femorale

9) Polydontes sp (Family - Camaenidae)

• Terrestrial

10) Polydontes lim (Family - Camaenidae)

• Terrestrial

11) Zachrsia auricoma havanensis

do you mean Zachrysia auricoma f. havanensis (Pilsbry, 1926) (Family - Camaenidae)

• Terrestrial
• Common Name of Zachrysia auricoma (Ferussac, 1821)- golden zachrysia

  References found on the WWW
  Conch-L Archives
  ITIS
  URL
  

Discussions:

• Of course you also have to wonder about the edibility or toxicity to humans of their stomach contents...any insecticides etc...just a thought. I don't think I would trust eating most land snails that were found near human habitation (same rules apply to marine ones). ...Peter

• I don't have the reference immediately at hand but remember encountering an extensive list of Cuban potentially edible mollusks.

  For the land snails, one might have a guess based on their size and abundance as to whether they would be worth trying to eat. Also check for any evidence of hemit crabs, which might be eaten.

I don't know of reported toxicity of land snails, though some slugs are known to have chemical defenses, and some snails have been suspected of toxicity because of being conspicuous.

Some of the shells in an archaeological context might have been gathered for ornamental purposes. For land snails, there's always the possibiity that they just crawled there-a shell midden would be a nice source of calcium. ...Dr. David C