The banded dune snail or Morro shoulderband,

scientific name In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

''Helminthoglypta walkeriana'', is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

of air-breathing

land snail A land snail is any of the numerous species of snail that live on land, as opposed to the sea snails and freshwater snails. ''Land snail'' is the common name for terrestrial gastropod mollusks that have shells (those without shells are known as ...

, a terrestrial

pulmonate Pulmonata or pulmonates, is an informal group (previously an order, and before that a subclass) of snails and slugs characterized by the ability to breathe air, by virtue of having a pallial lung instead of a gill, or gills. The group includ ...

gastropod The gastropods (), commonly known as snails and slugs, belong to a large taxonomic class of invertebrates within the phylum Mollusca called Gastropoda (). This class comprises snails and slugs from saltwater, from freshwater, and from land. T ...

mollusc Mollusca is the second-largest phylum of invertebrate animals after the Arthropoda, the members of which are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 85,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized. The number of fossil species is esti ...

in the family Helminthoglyptidae. This species is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

to Morro Bay and the central coast in

San Luis Obispo County San Luis Obispo County (), officially the County of San Luis Obispo, is a county on the Central Coast of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 282,424. The county seat is San Luis Obispo. Junípero Serra founded the Mission ...

and Santa Barbara County, in California.

Taxonomy

At the time the species was divided into two subtaxa (subspecies or varieties): ''H. w. walkeriana'' and *''H. w. morroensis''
The latter was thought to be extinct but was rediscovered. In 2004, it was elevated to species status as ''Helminthoglypta morroensis'' and it inherited the endangered status it had when it was part of ''Helminthoglypta walkeriana''. Both snails together were known as the banded dune snail. Today ''H. walkeriana'' is the Morro shoulderband, and ''H. morroensis'' is the Chorro shoulderband.USFWS
Morro Shoulderband and Chorro Shoulderband Five-year Review.
September 2006.

Conservation

This snail was placed on the United States' Endangered Species List in 1994. The USFWS recommends that the Morro shoulderband be downlisted to threatened status and the Chorro shoulderband be delisted. The snails eat decaying plants and are eaten by birds, reptiles and mammals. Within the narrow distribution in coastal dune and scrub communities in Western San Luis Obispo County, they only come out in wet weather. They seal themselves inside of their shells for months at a time when it's dry for months at a time.

References

External links

FWS: Banded dune snail — ''Helminthoglypta walkeriana'' species profile
Helminthoglypta Endemic fauna of California Fauna of the California chaparral and woodlands • Natural history of San Luis Obispo County, California Natural history of Santa Barbara County, California Molluscs of the United States Critically endangered fauna of California Gastropods described in 1911 Taxonomy articles created by Polbot ESA endangered species {{Helminthoglyptidae-stub