Koster and Roswell springsnails

Closeup on a cluster of what looks like grains of sand or small pebbles with a small painbrush on the upper left. Looking closer, some of the grains are actually tiny snails.
Photo By/Credit

USFWS

Date Shot/Created
09/08/2023
Media Usage Rights/License
Public Domain
Image
A fine paintbrush is used by biologists surveying for Roswell and Koster springsnails at Bitter Lake National Wildlife Refuge in southeastern New Mexico near Roswell. Measuring in around 1.5 millimeters each, they can easily be confused as the grains of sand and tiny pebbles they're mixed in with.
Facility
Southwestern Native Aquatic Resources and Recovery Center
New Mexico Fish and Wildlife Conservation Office
New Mexico Ecological Services Field Office
Bitter Lake National Wildlife Refuge
Ecosystem
Desert
Wetland
Species
Juturnia kosteri
Pyrgulopsis roswellensis
Subject tags
Deserts
Invertebrates
Wetland restoration
Wetlands