Garden Zachrysia
Zachrysia provisoria (L. Pfeiffer, 1858)
Family Camaenidae
The Garden Zachrysia snail is rare on S. Hutchinson Island beacehs. It's is an invasive land snail from Cuba. Read more about its history in Flroida from Harry Lee below.
The Garden Zachrysia (slightly enlaged above) was collected on S. Hutchinson Island (February 2021)
Harry Lee: The snail is Zachrysia provisoria; see <http://www.jaxshells.org/zach7.htm>. I discussed the snail in a 2014 Florida Scientist paper:
"In most instances it is not clear where and when they became established in the United States, but one introduction is reasonably well documented. Charles Torrey Simpson (1846–1932) deliberately introduced several species of exotic land snails from Bimini and Cuba to his property in Lemon City, Dade County, Florida, including Zachrysia provisoria, which was ‘‘completely established’’ by April 20, 1918 (Clapp 1919). Auffenberg and Stange (2004) recorded this species from Broward, Collier, Dade, Hillsborough, Monroe, Palm Beach, and Pinellas Counties, and by 2006 it was commonly encountered in Sanibel gardens (Lee, unpublished) and has been spreading across the island over the past 15+ yr (Joffe, personal communication). These observations and the absence of any record in the literature (Tables 1 and 2) point to both the recent introduction and rapid spread of this and other exotic land snail species both in Lee County and on Sanibel and Captiva Islands."
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The Garden Zachrysia
José H. Leal Oct 21, 2016
The Garden Zachrysia, Zachrysia provisoria (L. Pffeifer, 1858), is a species of land snail commonly found on Sanibel, Captiva, and many other parts of Florida. The species is originally native to Cuba, and is an invasive to Florida, the Bahamas, and several Caribbean islands. Its shell is globose, measuring a tad more than an inch (reaching 30 mm), and is white and translucent, under a brownish “skin-like” periostracum. The aperture lip is white as the rest of the shell, but not covered by the periostracum. The species is considered a pest of garden plants rather than of agricultural crops, as some other introduced species are.