My Projects …
On this page I describe the various projects that I am, or have been, working on, and pose some questions needing answers.
Introduced Species
I've long been interested in introduced mollusc species, and not just terrestrial ones. Growing up in the Vancouver area gave be the opportunity to explore Boundary Bay, a 'hotbed' of marine introductions. When my interest shifted more to the terrestrial molluscs, I soon found that a large number of the common introduced land snails were not yet 'discovered' in British Columbia (see Forsyth 1999 and subsequent papers).
I teamed up with Frederick Schueler and Aleta Karstad (Bishops Mills Natural History Centre) and worked on a field guide focusing on the introduced species. Identifying Land Snails and Slugs in Canada: Introduced Species and Native Genera will be published by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. It includes an introduction, keys to genera, diagnoses of all the genera, and species accounts of the exotic snails and slugs.
Bibliography
A few years ago I began the Bibliography of Recent Terrestrial Molluscs of Canada project. Simply this was meant to put order into the scattered (mostly small) publications that deal with these organisms in Canada. Over time it has evolved into an online database of bibliographic citations that allows users to find references by province or territory and by species. As I acquire and inspect literature, I have been indexing more species records. Please contact me if you know of any literature that I have missed. Future updates are planned along with new means to search and filter the data.
Terrestrial Molluscs of Ontario
I've been identifying the terrestrial mollusc material collected in Ontario by Michael Oldham, Frederick Schueler, and others.
Efauna BC
Data, photos and species accounts have been contributed to the efauna.bc.ca project, and an introduction to land snails has been written. Unfortunately, maps are not yet available online and species accounts are only skeletal. Descriptive text, generated from a database of characters is planned.
Sampling for Terrestrial Micro-Molluscs
I'm interested in receiving donations of leaf litter to look for minute species of land snails. These tiny components of the fauna have historically been neglected in many parts of Canada. Their small size has meant that they have been overlooked by all but the most dedicated naturalists/malacologists. Samples should be between 1-2 L in volume. Please read this, and contact me for more information on how you can help.
Northwest Land Snail Surveys
Except for when the ground is snow covered (October–November through March–April, or even longer at higher elevations), I'm often out surveying for snails. Most often this is near home in Smithers and the Bulkley Valley or along the Yellowhead Highway 16 corridor west to the coast.
Alberta Checklist
I continue to update my preliminary checklist and bibliography of the terrestrial molluscs of Alberta, as I acquire new data and literature. Still to do: confirm certain species of questionable inclusion in the fauna; check other collections. Aquire additional material for comparison.
Some questions needing answers
Vitrina species in Canada
What are the east–west limits of the two Vitrina — the eastern V. angelicae and the western V. pellucida — species in Canada? The Rocky Mountains are not a barrier for V. pellucida, so how far east does the species occur? Some of the literature indicates that V. angelicae (or rather a synonym, V. limpida) is in Alberta, but is it? Anatomical studies and field work across Canada would only answer these questions.
Gastrocopta holzingeri in BC
This species has been known from BC for four decades, although only recently rediscovered and published (Forsyth 2004a). However, it is still only known from one (or perhaps two) localities near Canal Flats, BC. Are there additional locations in BC? Further field work and especially litter-sampling are needed.