Species: Columella columella alticola

H - >2,500,000 square km (greater than 1,000,000 square miles) - H - Forsyth (2004) lists this taxon under <i>Columella columella</i> with the following global distribution: "Arctic and alpine areas of Europe and mainly western North America, south to New Mexico and Arizona, and east to James and Hudson Bays, Ontario. The species was treated as a subspecies in North America (<i>Columella columella alticola</i>) on geographical grounds (no morphological differences exist between N.A. and European populations). Some malacologists (mainly a minority and mainly European malacologists) list it as a distinct species, <i>Columella alticola</i>, in North America (Pokryszko, 1987; 1990). Forcart (1959) claims <i>Columella columella columella</i> is a subarctic snail of Scandinavia and Siberia, <i>Columella columella gredleri</i> is restricted to central European Alps, and <i>Columella columella alticola</i> is strictly North American. Bequaert and Miller (1973) claim North American <i>Columella columella alticola</i> is Recent at 8000 to 9200 feet in British Columbia, Alberta, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona (where it is a relict of a former wider distribution), and is known as a Pleistocene fossil in Illinois, Iowa, and Kansas. Hubricht (1985) lists it across much of middle America but only as a Pleistocene fossil. Metcalf and Smartt (1997) use <i>Columella columella alticola</i> citing New Mexico distribution as widely separated mountains in New Mexico: Sangre de Cristo, Jemez, Capitan, Sierra Blanca, Salinas Peak, and Mogollon. In British Columbia, it is recorded from the Rocky and Cariboo mountains and along the shore of Kootenay Lake. There are records from the Olympic Mountains, Washington."