Polygyriscus is a monotypic genus of snail

Snail

Snail is a common name applied to most of the members of the molluscan class Gastropoda that have coiled shells in the adult stage. When the word is used in its most general sense, it includes sea snails, land snails and freshwater snails. The word snail without any qualifier is however more often...

s containing the single species Polygyriscus virginianus, known commonly as the Virginia fringed mountain snail or the Virginia coil. It is endemic to Virginia

Virginia

The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...

 to the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. It was listed as federally endangered species

Endangered species

An endangered species is a population of organisms which is at risk of becoming extinct because it is either few in numbers, or threatened by changing environmental or predation parameters...

 on 2 August 1978.

This snail was described in 1947. It is very rare; the snail has only been seen on bluffs along the New River in Pulaski County, Virginia

Pulaski County, Virginia

As of the census of 2000, there were 35,127 people, 14,643 households, and 10,147 families residing in the county. The population density was 110 people per square mile . There were 16,325 housing units at an average density of 51 per square mile...

. Only four adult specimens have been observed since 1978 and no juveniles have been seen since 1971. The snail is also difficult to locate because it is only 4 millimeters long and may burrow up to 2 meters into the soil.

External links

• Mollusc Specialist Group (1996). Polygyriscus virginianus. 2011 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Downloaded on 4 October 2011.