Een huisje van de landslak Pomatias elegans met operculum aangespoeld op Texel

An empty shell of Pomatias elegans, with its operculum still in place, was found among drift in the Slufter on the North Sea-coast of Texel, the westernmost of the Wadden islands. This specimen must have been transported by seacurrents to this locality, as its nearest populations occur hundreds of kilometers away on calcareous soils along the Channel coast and along the rivers Rhine and Meuse in Germany, France, Belgium and the southernmost part of the Netherlands. Floating of the shell will have been possible by air trapped in the shell. Other floating material and drift-bottle experiments in the past indicate that such a transport is possible. Only once P. elegans has been reported before from the Dutch coast (near Kijkduin in 1928).