Recently, in looking through some slightly older parts of my collection I came upon a nice specimen of Hygromia cinctella, collected in late 2002 from drift debris washed into the stone ruins of the old boathouse on the Fleet lagoon at Moonfleet, Dorset, after very high tides and south west winds. I wondered, after all these years if there could be more to be found in the same area? I went off to have a look on 1st November last year.
There was plenty of drift debris in the same area of the old boathouse but no H. cinctella, I decided to look further around the ruins on and near some old steps. The area was grown over by grasses, brambles and stunted older trees. Having shouldered my way in and having a good scratch about I collected five empty shells of H. cinctella, four faded and badly damaged but one nice shell with only slight damage to the lip and with that nice warm red/brown colour that the shells often have. So it would seem that they are still around in that area although no live specimens were found; that’s a job for perhaps another time.
Once home I got to thinking about how these shells got to be here at Moonfleet Manor and also in the area of Pennsylvania Castle on Portland. Other finds and recent reports of H. cinctella localities suggest it is expanding countrywide via gardens, garden centres, imported plants, dumped garden refuse into the countryside, modern landscaping, etc. But could it be that at some localities it has been in this country for quite some considerable time, just not looked for or noticed? Take Moonfleet Manor as an example. The buildings may date back from the time of the Mohun family in the 16th century when the grounds extended much further around the buildings that at the present day with well-maintained terraces running down to the edge of the Fleet lagoon and no doubt planted with what would then be considered exotic plants brought in from Europe. These features are now long gone having reverted back to countryside some time ago.
Could it be that H. cinctella is not a new visitor here at Moonfleet, but an old accidental introduction that has hung on for many years from the historical past. If this was the case then could some recent reported sightings be of much older populations than were initially thought?