28 William F. Adams and Susan G. Brady 



Streambank forest cover, typical of southern swamps, consists of bald 

 cypress (Taxodium distichum (Linnaeus)), tupelo gum (Nyssa aquatica 

 Linnaeus), red maple {Acer rubrum Linnaeus), and water ash (Fraxinus 

 caroliniana Miller). 



Our report of Helisoma eucosmium constitutes the second recent 

 recollection of a likely "extinct" planorbid snail in the Cape Fear 

 River drainage of southeastern North Carolina, the other being the 

 rediscovery of Planorbella magnifica (Pilsbry) in Orton Pond (Adams 

 1988) and in Sandhill Creek Pond (Adams 1993), approximately 14.5 

 km (9.0 mi) SE and 12 km (7.5 mi) ESE, respectively (Fig. 1). Because 

 of the heavy residential and industrial development that has occurred 

 in southeastern North Carolina within the past half-century, these 

 waterbodies might hold some of the few remaining populations of the 

 original freshwater molluscan fauna of the lower Cape Fear Basin. If 

 H. eucosmium is restricted to Town Creek and systematic research 

 determines that it warrants full species rank, protection under state 

 and federal conservation laws might be warranted. Although the Town 

 Creek watershed is still very rural, covered primarily in crop and 

 forest lands, the surrounding region is urbanizing rapidly, and the 

 stream will surely be impacted by this trend. Consequently, additional 

 surveys to determine the distribution of H. eucosmium and resolution 

 of outstanding systematic issues are urgently needed. 



ACKNOWLEDGMENTS— Partial funding for this work has been 

 provided by the University of North Carolina Center for Marine Science 

 Research and the Wilmington District, United States Army Corps of 

 Engineers. We would like to thank Dr. Eric Bolen for his administrative 

 support, Mr. Shaun Cain for field assistance, Dr. Courtney Hackney 

 for his ideas and encouragement, and Dr. Rowland Shelley for his 

 constructive review of this manuscript. Photographs were taken by 

 Mr. David M. DuMond. 



LITERATURE CITED 



Adams, W. F. 1988. Rediscovery of Planorbella magnifica (Pilsbry) 

 in southeastern North Carolina. Nautilus 102(3): 125-126. 



Adams, W. F. 1990a. Recent changes in the freshwater molluscan 

 fauna of the Greenfield Lake basin, North Carolina. Brimleyana 

 16:103-117. 



Adams, W. F. 1990fc. Helisoma eucosmium (Bartsch, 1908). Pages 

 16-17 in A report on the conservation status of North Carolina's 

 freshwater and terrestrial molluscan fauna (W. F. Adams, editor). 

 North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, Raleigh. 



