In Holland we have "common names" for our indigenous molluscs too. That's
nice in case you, as a foreigner, go out shell hunting in our marshes, bogs
and swampland. Ask the locals where to find the geribte jachthoornslak, the
scheve jachthoornslak, or the fraaie jachthorenslak. If the locals are in a
jolly good mood, they'll only twist your arms until the cops arive. Then you
may go to the beach, in search of the dichtgestreepte artemisschelp (very
rare), the halfgeknotte strandschelp (edible!) or the gorgelpijp-knotsslak
(not to be confused with the plompe knuppelslak). Perhaps you should try our
rivers as well. There, you might collect the Sphaeriumvormige erwtenmossel,
the scheve erwtenmossel and, you already guessed it, the fraaie
erwtenmossel. Where is the geribte erwtenmossel? Sorry, it has not been
found and named yet!

Thruth is, there is a nice little book, published by the Dutch Malacological
Society in 1994, with all the "common" names ever given to Dutch and Belgian
molluscs. The authors have selected the "best" names, that is: either the
ones most used in the local literature (although there are some mysterious
exceptions), or names that are simply derived from the Latin names. I think
it's the explanation of the meaning of the Latin words that makes this book
quite useful since it helps to understand and memorize the latin names.
However, I prefer a book like Henry Poirier's (1954) "An up-to-date
systematic list of 3200 seashells from Greenland to Texas: translation,
explanation and gender of their names". It includes "common" names only when
they are widely used (no artemis shells, or truncheon and bludgeon snails
here).


Marien Faber
www.mollus.nl