Dear Wim,

I'll spend one month in peninsular Malaysia (east coast) in August. I
don't know if there is any limestone on the island because last time
I was there I was all the time in the water but I'll investigate the
jungle this year. I must confess I'm a beginner (certainly not a
advanced collector !) for seashells and I've never collected any
land-snails (but to eat them!) even in France. So your manual could
be very useful ! For ID I've only got something in the two volumes on
Indonesian shells and as far as I remember (I'm in the office) it's
fresh water and not land-snails. So could you recommend me something ?

Among the shells I've collected last year in Malaysia there are two I
cannot find anywhere in the usual literature (compendium, Wilson's
volumes on Australian shells, Indonesian volumes). One looks like an
Umbonium but is not : more flat and on the back the spires are
visible till the center, not fade as on Umbonium. As there is a
little river (very little) with fresh water which runs into the sea
on the beach, I was wondering wether my false Umbonium could be a
fresh water mollusk. I've collected them dead, the size is less than
10mm.
What could you recommend any books for east-asia fresh water ?

Thank you in advance,

 From a real French beginner, Sophie


>dear mr. Sim
>
>You live in a wunderfull countrey for collecting land-snails. If You wish I
>could sent you a manuel how to collect in the tropics. But first of all you
>have to look for some limestone areas, they are the best in the tropics for
>collecting. Do'nt forget Mount Kinabalu. Bouchet and Tillier wrote a report
>with descriptions of a number of new species from this mountain.
>I collected since 1992 once a year in South-East Asia (Sulawesi, Sumatra and
>West Malaysia). If you wish I could help you with some identifications in
>case you collect something.
Wim

Sophie Valtat
16, rue des Ecoles - 75005 Paris - France


Hi Sophie,

Here are some not-so-layman's books
but adequate enough to ID your shells:

BENTHEM-JUTTING, W. S. S. van 1960
Some notes on land and freshwater mollusca of Malaya.
Basteria, 24 (1 & 2) : 10 - 20, 1 figure.

BENTHEM-JUTTING, W.S.S. van 1958
Evolution: Non-marine Mollusca of the limestone hills in Malaya. Pages 63-68. IN:Proc.Centenary Bicentenary
Congress of biol.,Singapore,1958.
Editor: MORTON, Brian
University of Malaya Press.

BENTHEM-JUTTING, W.S.S. van 1958
Freshwater Ecology: Some zoogeographical remarks
on the non-marine mollusca of the Moluccas. Pages 164-169.
IN:Proc.Centenary Bicentenary Congress of biol.,Singapore,1958.
Editor: MORTON, Brian.
University of Malaya Press.

BERRY, A. J. 1963
An introduction to the non-marine Molluscs of Malaya.
Malayan Nature J., 17(1&2): 1-17.
Malayan Nature Society.

BERRY, A. J. 1974
Freshwater bivalves of Peninsula Malaysia with
special reference to sex and breeding.
Malayan Nature J., 27: 99-110.
Malayan Nature Society.

BRANDT, Rolf A. M. 1974 **
The Non-marine Aquatic Mollusca of Thailand.
Arch. Moll., 105 (1/4) : 1 - 423, pls. 1 - 30.
Natur-Museum, Senckenberg-Anlage

** = most comprehensive so far but no colour.

Hope the above helps and best of luck

http://i.am/sow-yan :))