Page 6 June-July-Aug. 1977 Nos.233 NEW YORK SHELL CLUB NOTES 
CUBAN MOLLUSK IMMIGRANTS IN FLORIDA 
Morris K. Jacobson 
ida. A great 
n did interestin eople come from Cuba to Florida ; 
ion pep Stents ond animals -- from i eik sale sate gate 
and alligators -- came as well. Including some fascinating s, 
he most spectacular immigrant mollusk is undoubtedly the Florida 
£2: Snail, Liguus eappcnene ee Muller. This is easily one - she most 
handsomely colored land pulmonates of the world. It used to be 
found from the Florida Keys to Pompano Beach north of Miami, and 
Craig (1973) reported the presence of a small colony as far north as 
Boynton Beach. It has disappeared from many areas and some color 
forms have vanished. Nevertheless it is encouraging that at least 
one recent student (Robert S. Voss, 1976) does not feel that it is 
an endangered species. It is flourishing vigorously in hammocks now 
largely preserved in county, state, and federal parks. 
There is no doubt that the ancestors of this lovely Floridian species 
all came from Cuba. Simpson (1929) writes that many "snails in Cuba 
are closely related to our forms and without doubt are their ances- 
tors, often scarcely removed varietally." They arrived in Florida 
strongly cemented by their epiphragms to trees which were hurled on 
the Floridian coast by violent hurricanes blowing from the direction 
of Cuba. Dr. Simpson (loc. cit.) gives a very thorough account of 
the way they landed. 
It is generally recognized that in Florida we have only a single spe- 
cies of Liguus with several very doubtful subspecies (Pilsbry, 1946, 
lists 8) plus a large number of named varieties and color forms. 
Anyone interested in studying and making a collection of the whole 
gamut of these "horticultural" varieties is referred to Simpson (1929) 
and Pilsbry (1946). A whole group of Liguus fanciers has grown up 
and still flourishes. An interesting history of Liguus collecting 
has been published by Ralvh H. Humes (1965). 
It is interesting to note that further -- and final -- proof that 
the presence of Liguus in Florida is due to hurricane-driven tree- 
rafts from Cuba can be seen in their haphazard distribution of color 
and other varieties in the hammocks they occupy. Had they been a 
native form, their distribution would have been more regular and 
clines of forms could have been worked out by students. Instead, 
the distributional pattern clearly shows signs of the erratic land- 
ing of snail-bearing trees -- often a single gravid snail on a sin- 
gle branch -- thus giving rise to a Single distinguishable population 
on an isolated hammock. f 
Nor need the time it takes such varied populations to appear on dif- 
ferent hammocks be very long. Jacobson (1966) showed tom in a peri- 
od of about 25 years at least six distinctly different populations 
of Cepea nemoralis (Linnaeus) appeared in Rockaway Beach, New York, 
a rote isolated one from the other by the intervening paved streets. 
imilar rapid Speciation" has been noted in the Partula of Tahiti 
and Achatina in the islands of the South Pacific. 
Three other undoubted immigrants from Cub 
a are all members of the 
ea Urocoptidae. These are Poey's Truncate Rock Snail (Cochlodi- 
e La poe ana Orbigny), the Pontiff Rock Snail (Microceramus ponti- 
ficus ould), and the Floridian Rock Snail (Microceramus floridanus 
Isbry). Cochlodinella has a small, horn colored shell about $" in 
