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bristled slitmouth
bristled slitmouth (Stenotrema barbatum)
Illinois Status: uncommon, native
Photo © Marla Coppolino
Features and Behaviors
FEATURES
Strenotrema barbatum, the bristled slitmouth, is a football-shaped snail about one-half of an inch wide and half as tall. It has a brownish shell with five whorls, with small, coarse hairs, and the aperture (opening of the shell) is mostly hidden behind by a parietal plate. A parietal plate is the calcareous deposit found on the aperture or entrance into the shell. The bristled slitmouth has long, flexible eye stalks. It has been known under several taxonomic names, like: Stenotrema barbata, S. hirsutum barbatum, and Polygyra (Stenotrema) barbata. It is very similar to many species in the Polygyra genus, specifically P. hirsuta, which is smaller, hairier, and has a much smaller parietal plate.
BEHAVIORS
The bristled slitmouth can be found beneath logs and leaf litter in wooded floodplains. It is an omnivore, reproduces in the early summer, and lays eggs on logs in jellylike masses in May and June. According to the Fieldbook of Illinois Land Snails by Frank Collins Baker, the bristled slitmouth has been found in a single quarry in Hardin County on the Ohio River, despite being common in Wabash Valley in Indiana; while it should be found in other places along Ohio and Wabash, it hasn’t. The Illinois Natural History Survey has one record of the bristled slitmouth found in Johnson County.
Illinois Range
Taxonomy
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Gastropoda
Order: Stylommatophora
Family: Polygyridae
Habitats
The bristled slitmouth can be found beneath logs and leaf litter in wooded floodplains.
