Authors
Christine E. Parent Evolutionary ecologist, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, USA.
Sergio E. Miquel Argentine Museum of Natural Sciences 'B.Rivadavia', Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Guy Coppois
What's New?
Latest species added:
- Tralia panamensis Adams, 1852
- Onchidella steindachneri (Semper, 1882)
- Ellobium stagnalis (d'Orbigny, 1835)
Terrestrial & brackish water snails
Gastropods, more commonly known as snails and slugs, include marine snails and sea slugs, freshwater snails and freshwater limpets, and the terrestrial snails and slugs. The name comes from the Greek, meaning “stomach-foot”.
The class Gastropoda is the most diversified in the phylum Mollusca with 60,000 to 80,000 living species, and is second only to insects in its number of known species among animals.
Morphologically, gastropods are characterized by the torsion of their visceral mass and their mantle shell covering so that they are twisted 180 degrees in relation to head and foot. Most gastropods have also developed a unique coiled shell which was lost in slugs.
The Galapagos land snail fauna is rather poor, with relatively few indigenous and endemic species (see the species numbers below).
Since most land snails have restricted distribution ranges and are often small and dull-colored, it is conceivable that future fieldwork will add to this list. Interestingly, more than 75% of Galapagos endemic land snails are of the genus Bulimulus, forming the largest adaptive radiation known from these islands.
In 2009, on the occasion of the joint 50th anniversaries of the Galapagos National Park and the Charles Darwin Foundation, Tui De Roy and Jaqueline De Roy donated the most complete historic collection of terrestrial snails collected in Galapagos by André De Roy.
This important bequest is now housed at the Charles Darwin Foundation, named the in honor of its collector: The André De Roy Invertebrate Collection.
This checklist only includes the terrestrial species, checkout the marine mollusks as well.
Authors: Christine E. Parent, Sergio E. Miquel, Guy Coppois.
Other Contributors: Sandra Abedrabbo, Léon L. Baert, Fabián Bersosa, Ruth Boada, Carolina Calderon, Charlotte Causton, David Clarck, André De Roy, Tui De Roy, Germania Estévez, Lilian Guzmán, John M. Heraty, Henri W. Herrera, María T. Lasso, Maria Piedad Lincango, Yale Lubin, Alejandro Mieles, Renato Oquendo, Stewart B. Peck, Helmut W. Rogg, Lázaro Roque-Álbelo.
Names of taxa included: 133 total (128 accepted, 4 unidentified taxon, 1 doubtful).
Origin of the taxa included: 9 accidental, 1 cultivated, 118 endemic, 3 indigenous.
Gastropoda Species Checklist
Domain Eukaryota
Kingdom Animalia
Division Mollusca
Class Gastropoda
Order Cycloneritimorpha
Order Heterobranchia
Order Pulmonata
Order Stylommatophora
Order Systellommatophora
You are welcome to download and use this information acknowledging the origin of the data.
This list should be cited as follows: