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banded tigersnail
banded tigersnail (Anguispira kochi)
Illinois Status: common, native
Photo © Marla Coppolino
Features and Behaviors
FEATURES
The banded tigersnail shell is yellow with two brown stripes, has a deep umbilicus or the center of the coiling shell, and reaches about an inch in width. The body of the snail is light colored with dark eyes on the ends of antennae-like stalks. The vital organs of the snail always remain within the shell.
The banded tigersnail has two look-alikes, Anguispira alternata and Polygyra profunda. Anguispira alternata has a smoother shell and different pattern, and Polygyra profunda has only one wide stipe around the shell, with several narrower stripes below.
BEHAVIORS
Snails move around by sliding around on their foot with wave-like muscular contractions and lubricate the path in front of them with mucus produced by a gland by their mouth. The banded tigersnail inhabits deciduous forests, especially along river valleys with outcrops of limestone rock and lives for five or six years. Land snails are hermaphrodites and the banded tigersnail becomes sexually mature at two to three years old. Species that are hermaphrodites have both male and female parts, and can self-reproduce. They probably mate in the early spring to mid-summer and hibernate from October to April. They lay eggs in woody debris protected from the sun in a jelly-like mucus. Young snails hatch about 30 days after. Snails are prone to freezing in the winter and dehydration in the summer. The banded tigersnail is found along the Illinois, Mississippi, Ohio, and Wabash Rivers.
Illinois Range
Taxonomy
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Gastropoda
Order: Stylommatophora
Family: Discidae
Habitats
Aquatic Habitats
rivers and streams
