A Guide to Land Snails of Australia

by John Stanisic, Darryl Potter, Lorelle Stanisic

Overview

Australia's native land snails are an often-overlooked invertebrate group that forms a significant part of terrestrial biodiversity, with an estimated 2500 species present in Australia today.

A Guide to Land Snails of Australia is an overview of Australia's native and introduced land snail faunas, offering a greater understanding of their role in the natural environment. The book presents clear diagnostic features of live snails and their shells, and is richly illustrated with a broad range of Australia's native snail, semi-slug and slug species. Comprehensive coverage is also included of the many exotic species introduced to Australia.

In a unique bioregional approach, the reader is taken on a trek through some of Australia's spectacular regional landscapes, highlighting their endemic and special snail faunas. This section is supplemented with key localities where species can be found.

Features:

• Profiles and provides diagnostic features for the 27 native Australian land snail families
• Includes information on the 47 introduced species and their families
• Highlights more than 160 of Australia’s most iconic species with photographs of selected live snails
• Provides a pictorial guide to the common shell shapes of families to assist with identification
• Takes a bioregional approach to snail identification, outlining key localities where species can be found
• Includes tips on how, when, and where to collect Australian land snails.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781486313525
Publisher:	CSIRO Publishing
Publication date:	08/02/2022
Pages:	184
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 8.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Dr. John Stanisic, OAM, is Australia's foremost authority on land snails. An Honorary Research Fellow at the Queensland Museum, John has described more than 400 new species.

Darryl Potter, MEnvSc, is Biodiversity Collection Manager (Mollusca) at the Queensland Museum. His major interests are in terrestrial and marine gastropods of Australia.

Lorelle Stanisic, MPhil, BEd, is an Honorary Researcher at the Queensland Museum. She has completed a master's degree on the charopid land snails of mid-eastern Queensland.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements vii

Preface: A snail whisperer's odyssey viii

Introduction x

1 The discovery and study of Australia's native land snails 1

2 Land snail form and function 9

3 Land snail behaviour 17

4 Snails in the environment 25

5 Identification of land snails 37

6 Australian native land snail families 53

7 Snails introduced to Australia 77

8 Regional land snail faunas 89

9 Collecting land snails 125

10 Human uses of land snails 143

Appendix: Classification of Australia's land snails 151

Glossary 153

References 157

Further reading 163

Index 164