Pupillid Land Snails of Eastern North America*

Abstract

Abstract: The Pupillidae form an important component of eastern North American land snail biodiversity, representing approx. 12% of the entire fauna, 25–75% of all species and individuals at regional scales, at least 30% of the species diversity, and 33% of individuals within any given site. In some regions pupillids represent 80–100% of total molluscan diversity within sites, notably in taiga, tundra, and the base-poor pine savannas and pocosins of the southeastern coastal plain. Adequate documentation of North American land snail biodiversity thus requires investigators to efficiently collect and accurately identify individuals of this group. This paper presents a set of annotated keys to the 65 species in this family known to occur in North America east of the Rocky Mountains. The distinguishing taxonomic features, updated county-scale range maps, and ecological conditions favored by each are presented in hopes of stimulating future research in this important group.