Columella columella

Columella columella, from Hwy 37, Pine Tree Lake, Stikine Region, BC (RGF 19.048.9463) [RF].

Columella columella (G. von Martens, 1830)
Mellow Column

  • Pupa columella G. von Martens 1830: 171.
  • Pupilla alticola Ingersoll 1875: 128.

Identification. Shell minute, subcylindrical. Spire tall, sides nearly parallel, straight. Whorls 6–8, with last or penultimate whorl often slightly smaller in calibre than adjacent whorls. Aperture subovate, rather elongate (taller than wide) in mature specimens, edentulous. Lip thin, simple. Umbilicus narrow. Protoconch smooth? Teleoconch sculpture of irregular incremental lines. Shell subtranslucent, yellowish or orangish brown. Height to 2.9 mm (higher than wide).

Habitat. Montane forests, wet intermontane valleys, tundra, and alpine tundra.

Canadian range. An arctic–alpine species: interior and northern mountains of BC; Rocky Mountain Foothills of Alberta; Yukon; tundra near Tuktoyaktuk, NWT; Hudson Bay lowlands, near Churchill, Manitoba; north shore of Lake Superior and Hudson Bay lowlands in Ontario; north shore of the Gulf of St Lawrence in Quebec; Labrador; southern Baffin Island, Nunavut.

  • Ingersoll E (1875) Special report on the Mollusca. In: Report on the natural history of the United States Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories, 1874. Bulletin of the United States Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories 1874, 1 (2): 121–142.
  • Martens G von (1830) Natur- und Vaterlandskunde. Ueber Würtembergs Fauna. Correspondenzblatt des Würtembergischen Landwirthschaftlichen Vereins 17 (3): 123–186.