Ostodes strigatus is a light tan- to cream-colored tropical ground-dwelling snail in the family Poteriidae endemic to the island of Tutuila in American Samoa (Girardi 1978, pp. 193, 214; Miller 1993, p. 7). The defining characteristics of species within the family Poteriidae include a pallium cavity (lung-like organ) and an operculum (a shell lid or ‘‘trap door’’ used to close the shell aperture when the snail withdraws inward, most commonly found in marine snails) (Girardi 1978, pp. 214, 222–224; Vaught 1989, p. 16; Barker 2001, pp. 15, 25). Ostodes strigatus has a white, turbinate (depressed conical) shell with 4 to 5 whorls and distinctive parallel ridges, reaching a size of 0.3 to 0.4 inch (in) (7 to 11 millimeters [mm]) in height, 0.4 to 0.5 in (9 to 12 mm)in diameter at maturity (Girardi 1978, pp. 222–223; Abbott 1989, p. 43). Its operculum is acutely concave to cone-shaped, with broad, irregular spirals from center to edge (Girardi 1978, pp. 198, 213, 222–224). True radial patterning is seldom found on the upper shell surface, and never on the ventral surface, which is usually entirely smooth (Girardi 1978, p. 223).