Trinity bristle snail
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| Monadenia setosa (Talmadge, 1952) |
The Trinity bristle snail (Monadenia setosa) (or Monadenia infumata setosa as it is treated in Roth and Sadeghian's "Checklist of the Land Snails and Slugs of California") is a rare and unique-looking species of snail that is endemic to California. It is named for the coating of minuscule bristles on its inch-wide shell. The bristles often pick up bits of plant matter and dirt as the snail moves around, giving the snail a dirty, fuzzy look. The snail is a threatened species. It is found only in isolated locales along the Trinity River and nearby small creeks, and it can only survive in cool, wet, shady riparian zones. Human encroachment, including logging, mining, and damming, have reduced the snail's habitat to a few patches deep in the forest.
Since the Trinity bristle snail is so dependent on cool, moist conditions, it is active at night. It spends warmer parts of the day stuck to shady areas on tree trunks, and in especially warm parts of the summer it may not move for days. When conditions are cool enough it feeds on lichen and tender parts of green plants. The snail has a lifespan of over ten years, and may not reach full size for nearly that long.
