Grand Canyon and Colorado River Corridor Sonorella

October 21, 2026.

I was hoping to make progress with the S. carefreeensis project today but I needed to clarify the project scope with Lance and talk about the BD02 and A04 snails. That didn't work out. The good news is I found the specimens of S. carefreeensis that need to go to Dr. Lindsay Groves at LACM for accession so the numbers can go into the paper when it's ready.

I had been mired in all the minutiae in the existing S. carefreeensis manuscript and starting to dread adding A04 and BD02, if they warrant recognition at all, which at least A04 does. There has to be a less onerous way of publishing species descriptions. Right now we have shell microsculpture, gross anatomy and shell characteristics, shell morphometrics, mtDNA, and secondary sexual characteristics. It's a bit too much. Malacologists in the past got away with a scribble and a paragraph, and that still is acceptable. The work we have been doing is epic by comparison. I suppose it shows we did our due diligence, to put it mildly.

I was reviewing Miller 1984 because it's a small paper describing three Sonorella. I was reminded of Sonorella reederi from Rampart Cave, within the Granite Gorge of the Grand Canyon. I wonder if they searched both sides or just the cave? Field notes may have the answer. This species possesses a vestigial spermathecal diverticulum,  the only Sonorella known to possess it but he doubted it was of use.  I had last looked at that area on Google Earth at 12 or so years ago. In the meantime, there have been some interesting Sonorella localities discovered which entice me to plan.

I previously have collected S. mohaveana, and perhaps someday will have the opportunity to collect S. reederi and S. coloradoensis from the north and south rim of the canyon. In addition to that there are two very interesting localities outside of the canyon discovered by Mark Potts which I have worked on with him on at iNaturalist.

Todo: Review the Sonorella sightings in the Grand Canyon area on iNaturalist and in flickr. Get the coords and locality information for all. I had gathered some photos in the past from postings which appear to now be gone. Thankfully I have them.

Remember: Mark Potts found what appear to be Sonorella in the Virgin Mts and by the Hualapai Pine Lack campground.