Recognition
Welcome to the Recognition page of Appalachina sayana. Within this page, you will find information on how to recognize and identify the snail. The information given will be about the the shell and the tooth within the shell. It is often hard to recognize/identify one of these snails when they are young due to parts of the snail's shell are not fully developed yet. ENJOY!
SHELL
Appalachina sayana is a snail with a pale yellow colored shell about .8 to 1.1 inches in diameter (Lee, 2002). The color of the shell may vary from being dull to being moderately glossy (Lee, 2002). The shell contains about 5 and 1/2 whorls with the whorls being flattened dorso-ventrally (Lee, 2002). The shell is thin and has deeply impressed lines where the whorls meet (Lee, 2002). As mentioned in the classification page, the shell has a deep umbilicus. The umbilicus is the deep hole opening in the center of the shell (Lee, 2002). Where the snail comes out of amongst the shell is a lip that is turned outwards around the outer edge (Lee, 2002).
The left image of the Appalachina sayana shell shows the deep umbilicus of the shell. The middle image is the shell being compared to a thumbtack, which shows that it is very small indeed. Lastly, the left image shows the whorls of the shell which was mentioned in the above paragraph (photos courtesy of Kraig Korroch).
Tooth
The opening of the shell has a small, narrow white tooth on the inside wall (Lee, 2002). On the basal end of the lip towards the umbilicus there is also a tooth; this tooth is important in being able to identify this snail from others (Lee, 2002).
To learn more about the Spike-Lip Crater click on any of the following:
Classification Habitat Reproduction