O'ahu Tree Snail
Oʻahu tree snails, genus Achatinella, are a large genus of colorful, tropical, tree-living, air-breathing, land snails, arboreal pulmonate gastropod mollusks in the family Achatinellidae.
This genus of tree snails live in Hawaii, and all are endangered species. They were once abundant. They were mentioned in Hawaiian folklore and songs, and their shells were used in lei and other ornaments.
Many of these arboreal snails are sinistral or left-handed in their spiral shell coiling, whereas most gastropod shells are dextral. (See the section on chirality in the article gastropod shell.)
Read more about O'ahu Tree Snail: Distribution, Conservation Status, Shell Description, Species
Famous quotes containing the words tree and/or snail:
“The problems of the world, AIDS, cancer, nuclear war, pollution, are, finally, no more solvable than the problem of a tree which has borne fruit: the apples are overripe and they are falling—what can be done?... Nothing can be done, and nothing needs to be done. Something is being done—the organism is preparing to rest.”
—David Mamet (b. 1947)
“The snail in his museum
wears his mother all day,
he hides his mysterious bottom
as if it were rotten fruit.”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)