Box of snail shells
Description: This little collection of beautifully presented land and freshwater molluscs was prepared by Fred Taylor from specimens collected during two holidays he spent in the Isle of Man in 1909. He searched a variety of habitats, including willow carr (swampy habitat, known locally as 'curragh'), ditches, grassy verges and hedgbanks, deciduous woodland and coastal dunes. Some 50 species and their varieties, organised according to the taxonomic list used by natural historians of the time, are arranged in carefully padded glass-topped boxes, each labelled with the name of the place collected.
Fred Taylor's collecting expeditions in the Isle of Man are described in 'Notes on the land and fresh-water mollusca of the Isle of Man' in Volume 1 of the Proceedings of the Isle of Man Natural History and Antiquarian Society, pages 509 - 513. The account includes notes on collecting and preserving specimens.One of the species in this display box, Helicella acuta (now Cochlicella acuta) - the Pointed Snail - appears now to be very rare in the Isle of Man, possibly due in part to erosion of its soft coastal cliff habitat.
Collection: Natural History Zoology Collection
ID number: 1954-3449
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