O'ahu Tree Snail

O'ahu Tree Snail

Oʻahu tree snails, genus Achatinella, are a large genus of colorful, tropical, tree-living, air-breathing, land snails, arboreal pulmonate gastropod mollusks in the family Achatinellidae.

This genus of tree snails live in Hawaii, and all are endangered species. They were once abundant. They were mentioned in Hawaiian folklore and songs, and their shells were used in lei and other ornaments.

Many of these arboreal snails are sinistral or left-handed in their spiral shell coiling, whereas most gastropod shells are dextral. (See the section on chirality in the article gastropod shell.)