No one is home in this small snail shell. I don’t suppose a snail abandons its shell since it can continue to make it larger as needed. My guess is that the former resident fell victim to some bad end, and the shell was all that was left behind.

I don’t find a lot of snails or their empty shells at Roundrock. I’m not sure why that would be (unless I’m just not observant). Could it be that the general conditions there are too dry? Predators? Insufficient food? I don’t know.

I found this shell far up the creek in the Central Valley, close to where it crosses into the property line of Roundrock. The slope is steeper and valley is narrower, so there is a sort of microclimate that is protected from all but the mid-day sun. It seems wetter in this spot, and perhaps that is where snails will do best. I’ve found a couple of other things in this area that I haven’t seen elsewhere at Roundrock including the sole Blackhaw tree and the Wild Hyacinth.

I’ll keep looking.

Missouri calendar:

• Cricket frog breeding at its peak.

Posted by: Roundrockjournal    Source

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