Dear Stephanie,

please contact me privatly and have a look at my website for the Tyrolean landshells. Very good images now.
Helmut

Helmut "Helix" Nisters
Franz-Fischer-Str. 46
A-6020 Innsbruck / Austria / Innsbruck
phone and fax: 0043 / 512 / 57 32 14
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
web:    www.netwing.at/nisters/
           (please visit it and sign guestbook)

office:
Natural History Department of the
Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum Innsbruck
Feldstrasse 11 a
A-6020 Innsbruck / Austria / Europe
phone: 0043 / 512 / 58 72 86 - 37

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Hi all

I have been meaning to add things about a few topics recently but have
deemed that I should be doing other things eg (PhD stuff), but the current
discussion about land snails I simply couldn't let pass with out saying
something (Sorry for the lenght).

Firstly though I have to correct the assertion that there are more land
snails than marine snails unfortunately this is far from true the sea
leaves the land for dead in terms of diversity of form and the numbers of
species within it.

However, back to the reasons why land snails (and I include freshwater ones
in this as well) don't seem to be popular:

1. the vast majority of the species are less than an inch (25mm) in
diameter or length (mind you this also applies to the marine fauna as well)
some exceptions being Achatinidae, Caryodidae, Acavidae and Bradybaenidae;

2. the vast majority of the species are not very colourful  (something that
also applies to the marine fauna), exceptions include some species of
Camaenidae and Bradybaenidae;

3. the supposed difficultly in finding them, this equally applies to marine
things as well eg if you don't know where the beast likes to live then it
makes it rather difficult to find them.

4. the supposed fact that snails don't live in beautiful places and that
you usually get very dirty collecting them, well this equally applies to
marine environments as well. As others have already pointed out, it is just
as dangerous, if not more and dirty to collect in marine environments as it
is to collect in terrestrial habitats. Mind you it can't get any easier
than to either walk out into your backyard or to walk along a forest track
and find them just crawling about with no effort to find them what so ever.

5. the supposed lack of literature - in reality there is actually quite a
lot of literature it is just spread all over the place, in terms of popular
coffee table type books there are not many but again this is the way it is
for the bulk of the marine fauna as well eg how many popular books are
there on just turrids, pyramidellids or venerids to name but a few?

6. that when you do get literature it is fully of highly detailed drawings
etc, and that this puts people off. Well the same applies to most good
marine fauna studies as well. Unfortunately the three most popular marine
groups eg cowries, cones and volutes are sadly very lacking in any of this
supposed extra anatomical etc detail ( and this to my mind has led to a lot
of people believe they can name new species in these groups with no need to
make reference to anatomical characters eg reproductive characters or
genetics - either allozymes or DNA/RNA type data).

To give an example while collecting literature for my masters and now my
PhD I have collected over 1050 references discussing molluscan genetics
using allozymes (proteins - enzymes) but its interesting to note that among
the many groups not yet looked at include cones, cowries and volutes which


are supposedly very popular and speciose.

7. that you can only identify them by looking at there anatomy, well as has
already been pointed out this is usually not necessary in every case and it
equally applies to marine faunas as well. However, if you are going to
study and name new species in what ever group to really do it properly you
do indeed have to look at other things besides colour pattern and shape,
especially if you are trying to look at relationships between species or
families etc.



Some other important things about snails

Besides Drosophila, two groups of land snails have played a major role in
helping gain an understanding of how evolution and speciation might work.
These being the Pacific tree snails Partula (Partulidae) in particular the
ones from Tahiti and Moorea and the European snails Cepaea nemoralis and
hortensis. And these types of studies were first started around the turn of
the century.

Also there are a few families of land snails that contain more species than
cones or cowries eg Camaenidae, Helicarionidae, Bradybaenidae, Helicidae.

In some ways I am glad snails are not as popular as cowries etc because I
don't have to pay crazy prices that many of them have (eg I have land
snails that are as equally rare eg only few specimens known etc which would
never command similar prices). And secondly you don't have to put up so
much with lots of extra unnecessary names that you have to sort through.

Anyway I hope the above puts a little perspective on how land snails and
their marine cousins really compare.

Regards

Stephanie Clark



















******************************************************************************
Stephanie A. Clark

Invertebrate Identification
Unit 4/17 Morris Street
PO Box 418
Summer Hill, NSW 2130
Australia

phone  61 (02) 9799 5689  fax  61 (02) 9799 5610  mobile  0412 372388
email [log in to unmask]