Abstract
Malacologists took notice of tree snails in the genus Liguus during the last decades of the nineteenth century. Since then, Liguus have undergone repeated shifts in identity as members of species, states, shell collections, backyard gardens, and engineered wildernesses. To understand what Liguus are, this paper examines snail enthusiasts, collectors, researchers, and conservationists—collectively self-identified as Liggers—in their varied landscapes. I argue that Liguus, both in the scientific imaginary and in the material landscape, mediated knowledge-making processes that circulated among amateur and professional malacologists across the United States and Cuba during the twentieth century. Beginning with an examination of early Liggers’ work in Florida and Cuba, this paper demonstrates how notions of taxonomy and biogeography informed later efforts to understand Liguus hybridization and conservation. A heterogeneous community of Liggers has had varied and at times contradictory commitments informed by shifting physical, social, and scientific landscapes. Genealogizing those commitments illuminates the factors underpinning a decision to undertake the until now little-chronicled large-scale and sustained transplantation of every living Floridian form of Liguus fasciatus into Everglades National Park. The social history of Liggers and Liguus fundamentally blurs distinctions between professional scientists and amateur naturalists. The experiences of a diverse cast of Liggers and their Liguus snails historicize the complex character of human-animal relations and speak to the increasing endangerment of many similarly range-restricted invertebrates.
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The label Liggers to describe the group of individuals concerned with Liguus tree snails developed, according to Robert Pace, around the late 1970s. Pace is unsure who first began using the designation, though it was the case that by the early 1980s people removed from his immediate circle were using the term widely. Humes (1958) grouped the same community of people under the term snailers, although Pace noted that this group also collected other South Floridian land mollusks, particularly Orthalicus spp. There were also “hunter-snailers” who, despite often producing excellent field collections, employed their own labeling practices illegible to Liguus specialists. Ligger developed to distinguish a community of people who were primarily concerned with Liguus as opposed to other “glade rats” and to include historical actors whom the community viewed as operating within a shared ideological genealogy (Bob Pace, personal communication, June 6, 2021).
De la Torre and his colleagues Carlos Aguayo and M. L. Jaumé published widely on Liguus in these decades both in Cuba and the United States and named several forms, while the Cuban malacological school boasted an increasing number of publishing Liguus specialists, including O. Alcalde Ledon, M. S. Roig, R. P. Guitart, and R. Castañeda. See Gonzalez-Guillen et al. (2018) for a more comprehensive portrayal of the rapidly developing malacological community in Cuba at the time.
Journals included Torreia (1939–1954), Revista de la Sociedad Malacológica "Carlos de la Torre" (1942-1954) and its “Circulares,” and Circulares del Museo y Biblioteca Malacológica de la Habana (1949–1954). See Breure and Guillén (2010) for an exhaustive list of publications.
Gonzalez-Guillen et al. (2018, p. 431) summarized current knowledge and debates on Liguus dispersal. The authors wrote: “We know that hurricanes were probably responsible for Liguus arriving in Florida. What is not clear is whether Liguus have dispersed through South Florida since or whether they were blown to the hundreds of hammocks on those original storms. At least four races of Liguus have never left their original landing areas (L. f. lignumvitae, septentrionalis, matecumbensis, and solidus). It is also apparent that Liguus have been moved around in Cuba via hurricanes.” Simpson’s and Pilsbry’s conclusions on long-distance dispersal maintain in contemporary biogeographical theory, as does the same controversy between Pilsbry and Simpson over how Liguus disperse over short distances. Both aspects of Liguus science still appear to hold down to particular and local distributions of Liguus forms. Pilsbry (1912, p. 443) wrote that L. fasciatus lignumvitae is “either a remnant of the solidus divergence or an independent migrant,” and “L. crenatus [now fasciatus] septentrionalis is large, and the northernmost form found at New River, Ft. Lauderdale. The race is apparently a pure one with no admixture of blood formed by mixture of the Miami races” (p. 439).
Simpson learned in conversation with friend and naturalist Charles Mosier that Mosier had “seen crows flying with these snails in their beaks” (1929, p. 18). Along with hurricane winds, Simpson thus hypothesized that avian dispersal could be a means by which Liguus migrate. Recently, Gonzalez-Guillén et al. noted that this remains a possibility, as does the potential movement of Liguus among hammocks by early humans (2018, p. 493).
Between 1930 and 1940, Pilsbry, along with Mizpah Otto deBoe, Henry. G. Frampton, Margaret Doe, William Clench, Al Pfleuger, and Paul Bartsch, all named new color forms of L. fasciatus in Florida. Of these individuals, two were institutionally affiliated malacologists: Paul Bartsch trained in histology and carcinology before working with W.H. Dall at the Smithsonian, and William Clench was professor at Harvard University and curator of the malacological collection in the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology. The others, and many more heavily involved Liggers, including Joseph Farnum and Richard Deckert, were amateurs who did not name species but collected and provided information and type material.
The connections between horticultural and Liguus enthusiasts demands further historical attention. Early amateur ligging and orchid horticulture are tightly linked in South Florida. For example. S. R. Livingston (for whom L. f. livingstoni is named) was a friend of Simpson’s and an orchid dealer. Fred Fuches and C. C. von Paulsen were also notably interested in orchids; when von Paulsen discovered L. f. vonpaulseni with Erwin Winte and William Osment, he was looking for orchids (Close 2000, p. 17).
Close suggested that at its peak, there were over 100 collectors in the field on any given weekend. Both Humes (1958, p. 73) and Close (2000) recounted the story of one particular smaller hammock, Pinecrest no. 36, that was visited by so many collectors so often that it seems plausible that 1000 shells were taken each weekend.
Liggers would eventually be allowed to collect snails within park boundaries for a few years after its formation in 1947 before a ban was placed on collecting. During these years, an average of 117 collecting permits were issued annually to a wide variety of Liggers (Close 2000).
Fires were said to produce more beautiful shells. Fires in hammocks burn up old vegetation and let in more sunlight and air, thus prompting new green growth and providing more food to the few surviving snails (Bob Pace, pers. comm., June 6, 2021).
Liggers are divided on whether this took place. Archie Jones was doubtful of these events, but Lloyd Lysinger believed they did happen (Bob Pace, pers. comm., September 4, 2019).
Humes (1958) also noted the effect this had on theft. Liggers would often plant a group of Liguus in one location, only to return in subsequent seasons to find that the living collection had been stolen. According to Bob Pace, some introductions were likely entirely accidental. It is believed that the collector C. N. Grimshawe would collect among several hammocks before taking a lunchtime nap and accidentally letting snails out of his loosely sealed collecting bag. This is apparently how a dark color form of L. f. marmoratus from Cox Hammock made its way into Key Vaca, where it interbred with a local L. f. gloriasylvaticus and darkened subsequent generations. To the trained eye, the snails were obviously out of place, having thick and large shells grown from feeding on richer Lysosoma plants rather than the thin and small Keys shells raised on Jamaica Dogwood foliage (Bob Pace, pers. comm., September 4, 2019).
Bob Pace recalled a rare left-handed L. f. lineolatus juvenile that one Ligger brought to Archie Jones to care for with the goal of increasing its size and thus its collectability (Bob Pace, pers. comm., September 4, 2019).
Close (2000) reported on Howe’s informal attempts to understand the offspring produced by forms from L. f. castaneozonatus and L. f. elliottensis in a Key Largo hammock that also contained L. f. lineolatus and L. f. roseatus. Both Howe and Close attempted to understand the resultant offspring patterning through the lens of Pilsbry and Simpson’s ideas about Liguus dispersal and introduction, but Howe never wrote up his findings and he has apparently been missing to the wider Ligger community for several decades (Bob Pace, pers. comm., September 4, 2020). Close also reported on Howe’s attempts to transplant color forms to secure locations, where populations apparently persist (2000, p. 10). For example, according to Bob Pace, there is an island northwest of Noname Key in the Southern Keys where Howe planted a particularly beautiful race of L. f. graphicus collected on Little Torch Key.
Aside from scientists working on taxonomy, another group frustrated by the fruits of transplanting and hybridizing snails were scientific category judges at regional specimen shell shows, popular venues for displaying and exchanging shells. Bob Pace recalled the conversation around whether there might be too much planting to the end of creating color forms. As time went on, however, many forms disappeared or were outcompeted in introduced hammocks. Introductions might now be recorded in local variation in banding or coloration that reflects unconventional parentage. For example, although no L. f. marmoratus are found today in Bloodhound Hammock, the coloration of L. f. gloriasylvaticus in Bloodhound suggests input from introduced L. f. marmoratus in historical time (Bob Pace, pers. comm., September 4, 2019).
Bob Pace, pers. Comm., June 6, 2021.
Humes wrote that the same expanding populations on the East and West coasts of Florida that pushed the Seminole people deep inland had the same effect on Liguus, although by artificial means. By the time of his writing, he figured that the rate of coastal population growth as it stood would give way to a time in which “no hammock would be left with enough trees to support a small colony of Liguus.” He declared emphatically that “Everglades National Park is the last refuge for shells and many rare species of plant life” (1958, p. 75).
Close provided a complete list, in chronological order, of the Liguus forms that were introduced into the park (2000, p. 22). Each Liguus form is introduced into two separate hammocks within the park to protect introduced populations from the risk of fire damage. This proved prudent. Hurricane Andrew devastated the East Everglades area in 1992. Visiting in 1993, Close was told by a park ranger that follow-up surveys revealed most of the Liguus populations to have survived the devastation.
Jones et al. (1981) gave a complete list of known migrations and hybridizations within the introduced colonies.
Bob Pace also recalled how Liggers were at times embittered by the failure of a select few to respect what were seen as generous collecting quotas. At the time of the total ban, many Liggers did not yet have a comprehensive collection of all named forms, which initially caused some, including Bob Pace, to begin getting out of the hobby and selling off portions of collections (Bob Pace, pers. comm., June 6, 2021).
Several smaller teaching collections, and also some regional natural history collections, enable some degree of historical study of Liguus in Cuba, but the collections of most major figures (including Carlos de la Torre and many of his contemporaries) are fragmented or missing entirely (Breure and Guillén 2010, p.7).
For example, the expansive Sanchez de Fuentes collection of Polymita and Liguus was apprehended at Havana’s international airport. Other collections made it out of the island only in small, fragmented lots over many years. See further discussion of this fragmentation over time in Gonzalez-Guillen et al. (2018).
Gonzalez-Guillen et al. (2018) offer a comprehensive listing of scientific journal, periodical, symposium, and congress venues used by Liguus specialists in Cuba.
Roth and Bogan were building on renewed scientific interest in the snails brought about by changing scientific commitments of malacologists and invertebrate biology more generally. See also Rex (1972) for a study of hammock area effects on color polymorphism diversity and Tuskes (1981) for continued work on aspects of the hurricane dispersal theory.
This naturalization of park Liguus continues to be developed. See Bennetts et al. (2000) for a treatment of Liguus biogeography within the confines of Big Cypress National Preserve that takes for granted the naturalization of Liguus in national park lands.
Another charismatic Cuban endemic tree snail group, Polymita, also became a subject of similar research into ecology and formal polymorphism, and researchers of these two groups stimulated one another through the 1990s to continue developing research programs within Cuba (Gonzalez-Guillen et al. 2018).
See Stodola et al. (2017) for a discussion of translocation programs among Naiad mussels. Among most other well-known land mollusk conservation programs, particularly the pulmonate gastropod snails, captive breeding is a preferred strategy. Hadfield and Haraway (2019) provide a narrative of varied efforts towards captive breeding programs for land mollusks, including the Achatinellids from Hawaii, Powelliphanta from New Zealand, and the Partulids of the South Pacific Islands.
Bob Pace, pers. comm., September 4, 2020.
Bob Pace, pers. comm., June 6, 2021.
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Galka, J.M. Liguus Landscapes: Amateur Liggers, Professional Malacology, and the Social Lives of Snail Sciences. J Hist Biol 55, 689–723 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10739-022-09695-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10739-022-09695-4