For once I am stumped!!

[burnhal]

Hi all nature people. Here's a puzzle for you.
At the weekend I was camping and a very large willow shed a very large bough nearby- 30 foot long and a couple of feet in diameter- one helluva crash!
Anyhow- inspecting the tree and bough it was obvious that the branch had only been partly held on- about a third of it was cracked and rotten. Interestingly full of slime- lots of slugs in there and something I dont recognise. There were dozens of what I shall call snails... but the shells were extremely pointed - like a narrow cone and very small. Maximum of 7 or 8mm long but only 2 or so mm wide. A bit like some of the very pointy sea shells. Thought they were pupae of some sort at first but closer inspection showed a perfect spiral and a hole as expected at the wider end. Been trawling web sites but gastropod identification sites seem few and far between- anyone any ideas?

[Kleiber]

You're not in Norfolk, are you? On "Springwatch" tonight, they were showing a very rare snail, called the Whorl Snail, which is quite tiny. Have a look on their website www.bbc.co.uk/springwatch.

[burnhal]

not that one I am afraid! The shell on my one is proportionally longer and narrower.

[Octavius]

Sinistral (left-handed) long thin shells (Clausiliidae family).

Sometimes called Door snails

http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en- commons/thumb/d/d4/180px-Door_snail.jpg


?

[Octavius]

http://www.weichtiere.at/english/gastropoda/te rrestrial/clausiliidae.html

[burnhal]

Brilliant! Thats the one!! Thanks!

[Kleiber]

That's really interesting! Thanks from me, too, Octavius!

[Octavius]

Don't mention it, glad to be of assistance.

[LoftyLottie]

Glad I found this thread burnhal. It's so nice to learn something new on AB. Thanks Octopussy!!

[4getmenot]

best get out and look for that whorl snail loftie :-)

[alfieblue]

Love learning something new everyday! Didn't know a thing about the little critters!!!

Animals n Nature section is always so interesting.:o)