Guardian Nature School Team Contact Blog Project Noah Facebook Project Noah Twitter

A worldwide community photographing and learning about wildlife

Join Project Noah!
nature school apple icon

Project Noah Nature School visit nature school

Glossy Turban Carnivorous Snail

Terrycarlessia turbinata

Description:

The Glossy Turban Carnivorous Snail belongs to a family (Rhytididae) whose members prey on invertebrates such as earthworms and also on other snails. Some are even cannabalistic, devouring smaller individuals of their own species. It is an Australian native. My previous spotting was of a bleached remnant shell - http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/509... This specimen, however, was very-much alive. The weight was considerable, although the inhabitant was in hiding.

Habitat:

Subtropical rainforest. Found beneath moist leaf litter on the Westcliff Track, Bunya Mountains National Park, southeast Queensland. Here's some park info - http://www.nprsr.qld.gov.au/parks/bunya-...

Notes:

These large land snails are favourites of the native Noisy Pitta birds (Pitta versicolor), which smash the shells against rocks to feed on the flesh. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noisy_pitta... PS: The reference link says "bad request", but please ignore this. It will still take you to the site required, that being the Queensland Museum.

Species ID Suggestions



Sign in to suggest organism ID

2 Comments

Neil Ross
Neil Ross 9 years ago

Thanks, Mark. The red colour was a real surprise. Next time I hope to see who's at home.

Mark Ridgway
Mark Ridgway 9 years ago

Amazing with the light through. I've never heard of these. Great spotting.

Neil Ross
Spotted by
Neil Ross

Queensland, Australia

Spotted on Oct 17, 2014
Submitted on Oct 20, 2014

Related Spottings

Glossy Turban Carnivorous Snail (remnant shell)

Nearby Spottings

Spotting Strangler Fig (aka Watkin's Fig) Strangler Fig (vs. Queensland Red Cedar) Cramp Ball Fungus

Reference

Noah Guardians
Noah Sponsors
join Project Noah Team

Join the Project Noah Team