Rich Mountain slitmouth or Pilsbry's narrow-apertured land snail,

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 ...

''Stenotrema pilsbryi'', 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

Polygyridae Polygyridae is a family of air-breathing land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusks in the superfamily Helicoidea. MolluscaBase eds. (2021). MolluscaBase. Polygyridae Pilsbry, 1895. Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species a ...

. 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 Ouachita Mountains of the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

Description

The Rich Mountain slitmouth occurs in a very small range in southeast

Oklahoma Oklahoma (; Choctaw language, Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the nor ...

and southwest

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the Osage ...

. Its appearance is atypical, as it has protrusions which cover the shell. These protrusions have the effect of making the snail look hairy. The species was first described on the Arkansas side of Rich Mountain as '' Polygyra'' pilsbryi.Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation. (1998, September). ''Monitoring Populations of the Rich Mountain Slitmouth Snail(Stenotrema pilsbryi) in Oklahoma'' (E-48). https://www.wildlifedepartment.com/sites/default/files/E-48%20Monitoring%20Populations%20of%20the%20Rich%20Mountain%20Slitmouth%20Snail%20in%20Oklahoma.pdf

Distribution and habitat

The distribution of the Rich Mountain Slitmouth is very limited, only occurring on parts of three mountains in Oklahoma and Arkansas. Rich Mountain is the type locality and contains the first known populations, with other populations occurring on adjacent Black Fork Mountain and the far eastern side of Winding Stair Mountain. Its range is further limited in that it only occurs on the characteristic talus rock glaciers of the Ouachitas.

References

Polygyridae Gastropods described in 1900 Endemic molluscs of the United States Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{Polygyridae-stub