Mt Tamborine Land Snailing Expedition

Mt Tamborine in the Gold Coast hinterland is an ideal location for a land snailing adventure. Situated in the Darlington Range not far from Lamington National Park, the mountain offers several excellent locations for finding land snails. These include Witches Falls, Macdonald NP, The Knoll NP and Curtis Falls. All are accessible by well-maintained walking tracks that wind through hectares of subtropical rainforest. The conference trip will explore the forests of The Knoll NP. A walking track that passes through notophyll vine forest and stands of Piccabeen palms provides an opportunity for some relaxing snail spotting.

Mt Tamborine has a unique land snail community (numbering upwards of 35 species) that is distinguished by a number of endemic land snail species mixed with a cohort of snails shared with Lamington NP. Among the many species to be found here are a range of helicarionids including the rare and endemic Parkin’s Semi-slug, Cucullarion parkini together with the more widespread and common, Black-spotted Semi-slug, Macularion aquila. The relatively large Pink Glass-snail, Nitor pudibunda is abundant. The Giant Panda Snail, Hedleyella falconeri is commonly encountered in the moister parts of the forest while its cousin, the Southern Flat-coiled Snail, Pedinogyra rotabilis prefers the rubbly subtrate of the drier ridges. Predator snail species include the large Glossy Turban Carnivorous Snail, Terrycarlessia turbinata and the Tamborine Carnivorous Snail, Strangesta ramsayi while a smaller Spiral-lined Carnivorous Snail, Echotrida strangeoides is relatively common. The darkly toned Prism Slug, Atopos australis is an uncommon occurrence as is the colourful Red-triangle Slug, Triboniophorus graeffei.

Two families with large representation are the Charopidae and Camaenidae. The charopids comprise a number of described and undescribed species. Among the described cohort of charopids are the Hairy Pinwheel snail Setomedea seticostata, and the heavily ribbed Canungra Pinwheel Snail Gyrocochlea paucilamellata and Red-flamed Pinwheel Snail Nautiliropa omicron. A charopid with an unusual microhabitat of living under the bark of fallen trees is the Faintly Ridged Pinwheel Snail, Ngairea corticicola. But be aware there are also many yet-to-be described pinwheels which can be found. Camaenids that are commonly encountered are the large Richmond River Keeled Snail, Thersites richmondiana and Fraser’s Banded Snail, Sphaerospira fraseri.  Hair-bearing camaenids that will be present include the Northern Rivers Bristle Snail, Austrochloritis stanisici and Challenger’s Bristle Snail, Ramogenia challengeri. Two arboreal camaenids that may be encountered are the Northern Rivers Treesnail, Posorites conscendens and the very rare Border Ranges Treesnail, Posorites turneri.

Other commonly seen arboreal species include the Tropical Beehive Snail, Coneuplecta calculosa, the small Iridescent Semi-slug, Ubiquitarion iridis and the operculate Drayton Droplet-snail, Pleuropoma draytonensis. A ground-dwelling operculate found in very wet rotting timber is the pupinid Wilcox’s Chrysalis Snail, Signepupina wilcoxi.

With such an inventory of land snails at hand, hopefully accompanied by fair weather, the day promises to be filled with exciting snail discoveries for all.