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Flax Snail
Maoristylus ambagiosus
Maoristylus ambagiosus is a species of flax snail (Māori: pūpū whakarongotaua), a large air-breathing land snail, a terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusc in the family Bothriembryontidae.
From the article Maoristylus ambagiosus on Wikipedia (CC BY-SA), quoted section by section
Description
This snail has a large (43–97 millimetres or 1.7–3.8 inches long) shell, which is heavily calcified. The size of the adult shell is habitat dependent, but the shell shape is not plastic. Maoristylus ambagiosus is highly valued by Te Aupōuri me Ngāti Kurī (the indigenous people of northern New Zealand) as a food source, musical instrument and in the past this snail provided alarm calls at night warning of approaching invaders.
Range & habitat
This land snail species occurs in New Zealand. It is restricted to a small fragmented area of Northland Region, including the Aupouri Peninsula and Motuopao Island. In the past local Māori moved and propagated populations of Maoristylus ambagiosus, so today at least three extant populations are found on old pā sites (fortified settlements), along with other species that were cultivated such as karaka (Corynocarpus laevigatus) and harakeke (Phormium tenax).
Wikipedia: “Distribution”
Where it lives
Recorded sightings
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geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
Drag the globe to turn it. Dots are where records exist, not a range map; darker means more records.
In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Maoristylus ambagiosus in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 395255.