West Virginia Polygyrid Snails 155 



DISCUSSION 



Pilsbry (1940) reported 12 polygyrid species in four genera in West 

 Virginia: Stenotrema stenotrema, S. edvardsi, S. hirsutum, S. frater- 

 num, Mesodon thyroidus, Triodopsis tridentata, T. t. juxtidens, T pla- 

 tysayoides, T. rugosa, T. albolabris, T. dentifera, and Allogona pro- 

 funda. Four of these were described as new species from collections 

 made in West Virginia. Triodopsis platysayoides was described from 

 specimens collected by S. T. Brooks in 1933 at Cooper's Rock, Monon- 

 galia County. Hubricht (1972) placed this snail on his endangered spe- 

 cies list, and no populations could be located during this study. Its sta- 

 tus as endangered may be the result of a restricted range, or of the 

 spring droughts of the 1970s that reduced many land snail populations 

 and could have caused the extirpation of localized colonies (Hubricht 

 1972). 



Triodopsis rugosa was first collected from a deep ravine, 1.6 km 

 southwest of Blair, Blair Mountain, Logan County (Brooks and Mac- 

 Millan 1940). It was originally described as T tridentata rugosa and the 

 taxonomy was changed by Pilsbry (1940). Triodopsis fraudulenta was 

 described by Pilsbry (1894) from Morgan County and Stenotrema 

 edvardsi was first collected from the mountains of Fayette or Greenbrier 

 counties by Bland, who described the species in 1858 (Pilsbry 1940). 



MacMillan (1949) published the latest report to specifically discuss 

 the land snails of West Virginia. Twenty-seven Polygyridae, in three 

 genera, were reported: Mesodon albolabris albolabris, M. a. dentatus, 

 M. profundus, M. mitchellianus, M. thyroidus, M. zaletus, M. pennsyl- 

 vanicus, M. sayanus, M. dentiferus, M. clausus, M. appressus, M. a. 

 perigraptus, Triodopsis platysayoides, T. fraudulenta fraudulenta, Tf 

 vulgata, T rugeli, T denotata, T tridentata tridentata, T t. juxtidens, 

 T rugosa, T fallax, Stenotrema edvardsi, S. fraternum fraternum, and 

 S.f cavum. I was unable to find T platysayoides, M. a. dentatus, T. t. 

 juxtidens, T fallax, and S.f cavum. Other new taxa have been reported 

 from West Virginia since the work of MacMillan, and these new species 

 have added to the confusion as to which species are present in the state. 



Grimm (1971) described Stenotrema simile which, although the 

 type locality was Maryland, was also reported to be found in Mononga- 

 lia, Nicholas, and Pocahontas counties, West Virginia. He noted that 

 the chief differences between S. simile and S. hirsutum were the larger 

 size of S. simile, its coarser granulations on the embryonic whorls, and 

 other shell sculpture characteristics best seen with the scanning electron 

 microscope. Grimm (1974) also found intermediate populations of T 

 juxtidens juxtidens and T j. discoidea near the New River Gorge at 

 Hinton, Summers County. Vagvolgyi (1969) found similar populations 



