Identifying terrestrial gastropods

Shell characters

Shells generally have a large number of characters that can be used to distinguish between groups of snails. ShellShell:
A hard, inflexible, calcareous or chitinous structure that vary in size and may either completely encasing the animal, covering some part of it or be internal.
sculpturing is one such characterCharacter:
1). A distinctive trait, quality or attribute used for recognizing, describing, or differentiating taxa; 2). The term used to denote such descriptive traits that possess states and are located within the Lucid version 2 (and later) interactive matrix panel. (compare feature)
.

Common shellShell:
A hard, inflexible, calcareous or chitinous structure that vary in size and may either completely encasing the animal, covering some part of it or be internal.
sculpturing include:

• hairs/Bristles – projections on the shellShell:
  A hard, inflexible, calcareous or chitinous structure that vary in size and may either completely encasing the animal, covering some part of it or be internal.
  that resemble mammalian hair
• pits – regularly shaped indentation in the shell
• dents- irregularly shaped indentations in a shell
• striae Striae:
  Any linear indentation on the surface of the shell. They can be either spiral (stripes) or axial (bands) in direction.
  – groove-like indentations that follow the whorls
• lirae Lirae:
  Raised, spiral lines on the surface of the shell.
  – raised ridges that follow the whorls
• ribs Ribs:
  Raised, transverse ridges on the surface of the shell.
  – raised ridges that run at an angle (usually transversely) to the whorls
• pleats/wrinkles – any type of ridging or creasing that appears to have been formed by folding or crumpling