20. Northwest Hesperian

Look waaayy down, and under and behind and you will find a number of teensy tiny snails, including Vespericola columbianus. I think that I will need to learn how to put scale bars on these photos so you could see that the diameter of the shell is approximately 6 mm. Even at this small size, the fine covering of hairs is apparent and surprising to most. Snails are not thought of as furry and cuddly! The best place to find these is under leaf litter, logs and sword ferns. This one was on a piece of slimy mushroom (not identified!). If you are turned on by these wee, and sometimes not so wee critters, the best field guide is Robert Forsyth's Royal BC Museum handbook; "Land Snails of British Columbia".  

**Thanks very much to the local expert who caught my original misidentification of this critter. There is a somewhat similar small snail called Pygmy oregonian; Cryptomastix germana that I had mistaken this for. (Aug 11, 2014)

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