As explained in yesterday's post, I have written the introductory paragraphs for 2 North American land snail families to be included in a workbook being prepared for the terrestrial gastropods workshop during the upcoming AMS meeting in Carbondale, Illinois.
I posted what I had written for the Discidae in yesterday's post. Here is what I wrote for the Punctidae.
Punctum is a Holarctic genus. The North American Punctum species are among our smallest land snails. In fact, P. smithi, whose adult shell diameters barely reach ~1.2 mm, is one of the smallest land snails in the world. Punctum are primarily woodland snails that are widespread throughout North America. The range of P. conspectum extends to Alaska. Although Punctum specimens may, on occasion, be abundant in litter samples, because of their diminutive sizes, however, live Punctum are difficult to observe and study in the wild. Consequently, virtually nothing is known about the natural histories of individual species. The European P. pygmaeum is known to be able to reproduce without mating in captivity. The anatomies of most North American Punctum species have also not been studied.Any errors and significant omissions of information will be corrected before the final version goes in the workbook.
Paralaoma caputspinulae (also known as P. servilis) is known from a few disjunct locations in western North America. It is probably a non-native species.
Punctum smithi was pictured in this post.