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New Zealand Mudsnail
New Zealand Mudsnail
How to identify the New Zealand Mudsnail:
(Potamopyrgus antipodarum)
* Spiral shaped shell
* Right handed coiling pattern about 5-7 whorls
*Small, usually about 5mm (max 12mm)
*Shell color - dark grey, dark brown, to light brown
Identification is usually difficult - small snails like this have very few distinguishing characteristics and it is easy to confuse them with the native species.
They are a tiny exotic, invasive snails that feed on dead or dying plant and animal material, algae and bacteria.
This invader has been known to be in trout streams of the western US since the mid 1980s.
They have not been observed in inland lakes yet, they are of great concern because they are eaisily transported, they reproduce efficiently, and they have no known natual enimies in North America.
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