Vespericolini

Vespericolini, or hesperians, are a tribe of air-breathing land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod molluscs in the family Polygyridae.

Vespericolini
Drawing: three views of a shell of Vespericola columbiana from W. G. Binney, 1878[1]
Photograph: three views of a shell of Vespericola armigera
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Mollusca
Class:	Gastropoda
Order:	Stylommatophora
Family:	Polygyridae
Subfamily:	Triodopsinae
Tribe:	Vespericolini Kenneth C. Emberton, 1995

It contains two genera: Vespericola and Hochbergellus.^[2]

Habitat

These snails are found along the Pacific Coast of North America, with Vespericola found from southern Alaska and British Columbia to California, and Hochbergellus found only in coastal Oregon.^[3][4]

Anatomy

The shells of these small to medium, globose or depressed globose snails are usually some shade of brown, sometimes without apertural teeth and sometimes with a single tooth on the parietal wall. Small periostracal hairs may be observed on the shell surface of many specimens, but the shells otherwise resemble those of Praticolella or Mesodon.^[3]

The two genera, Vespericola and Hochbergellus, cannot be distinguished based on shell anatomy. They can only be distinguished by examining internal organs, such as the reproductive system.^[4]