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Cornish Red Data (2009)

The descriptive text, below the map, is from the Cornish Red Data Book (2009). The map on this web page depicts the organisms distribution and shows the records made pre-2000 and those made since.

Vertigo moulinsiana - Des Moulins' Whorl Snail



Range & Status

Occurs in Europe and north-west Africa. The species was formerly considered threatened on a global scale but new records suggest that this is not the case. In the UK, V. moulinsiana is known from a series of sites in England, mainly central and eastern counties from Dorset to Norfolk, with outlying populations in Cornwall and north Wales.

Regional Distribution

Discovered in Cornwall as recently as 2000, its presence being significant as it is so remote from occurrences in SW. England. V. moulinsiana is known at two sites within SW75Y (Mount Field and Penhale Camp) and at Nansmellyn Marsh Reserve, Perranporth (SW75S).

Habitat & Ecology

Two of the Cornish populations are associated with typical V. moulinsiana habitat of tall reeds ( Phragmites australis ) at Penhale Camp and Nansmellyn Nature Reserve. However, the population at Mount Field is more unusual in occupying short ' fenny' grassland (Holyoak, G.A., 2003).

Threats

Cornish populations are potentially at risk from land drainage, or from over-grazing at the Mount Field site.

Conservation

This snail is listed on Annex II of the EC Habitats Directive and listed as Rare in the British Red List. The Cornish sites at Mount Field and Penhale are within the boundaries of a SSSI and the site at Nansmellyn is on a Cornwall Wildlife Trust reserve. It is listed on the BAP priority species list 2007.

Source:

I.J. Bennallick, S. Board, C.N. French, P.A. Gainey, C. Neil, R. Parslow, A. Spalding and P.E. Tompsett. eds. 2009. Red Data Book for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. 2nd Edition.Croceago Press.

The Cornish Red Data Book Project was led by the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Federation for Biological Recorders (CISFBR). The full text and species accounts (minus the maps) are available on the CISFBR website.