Micro-CT screening of old shell collections helps to understand the distribution of viviparity in the highly diversifed clausiliid clade of land snails

Current zoological research may benefit in many ways from the study of old collections of shells. These collections may provide materials for the verification of broad zoogeographical and ecological hypotheses on the reproduction of molluscs, as they include records from many areas where sampling is currently impossible or very difficult due to political circumstances. In the present paper we present data on viviparous and embryo-retention reproductive modes in clausiliid land snails (subfamily Phaedusinae) acquired from specimens collected since the nineteenth century in the Pontic, Hyrcanian, and East and Southeast Asian regions. X-ray imaging (micro-CT) enabled relatively quick screening of more than 1,000 individuals classified within 141 taxa, among which we discovered 205 shells containing embryos or eggs. Gravid individuals were found to belong to 55 species, representing, for some of these species, the first indication of brooding reproductive strategy

Clausiliidae (Gastropoda, Pulmonata) from western New Guinea

During the zoological exploration of Netherlands New Guinea sponsored by the Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie, Leiden, in 1954-1955, four specimens of Clausiliidae were found. There are no previous records of the occurrence of Clausiliidae in New Guinea; the most eastern locality in the Indo-Australian region from which this family of snails was known is the island of Halmahera, in the Moluccas (Loosjes, 1953, p. 209). Paraphaedusa minahassae (P. & F. Sarasin, 1899) Sarasin, 1899, p. 218, pl. 26 figs. 267-268. Ehrmann in Zilch, 1949, p. 77, pl. 4 fig. 10. Loosjes, 1953. P. 137, fig. 38. The specimens show the characters as they are typical of the species, but the aperture of some of the shells is somewhat narrower than usual, and the right upper angle of the peristome is a little less distinct in some specimens. The inner structure, examined in one of the shells, shows no differences from that of Celebes shells. Dr. L. Forcart of the "Naturhistorisches Museum", Basel, Switzerland, kindly sent to me four specimens (paratypes) from Klabat Volcano for comparison, for which I am greatly indebted to him. The species is known from the northern peninsula of the island of Celebes, from the localities: Klabat Volcano at 1500 m altitude under mosses on tree trunks (type-locality), on Soputan Volcano at 1150 m altitude, and on Mount Lokon. The localities in Central Netherlands New Guinea are (fig. 1) : 1. near River Dimija, between Lake Paniai and Lake Tage (Wissel Lakes), 3-I-1955, 1 specimen, leg. Dr. L. B. Holthuis

Geschiedenis van de Vereeniging ter bevordering van de belangen des boekhandels, 1815-1915

Mode of access: Internet

Semida en Cidli, of de hope der opstanding

door A. Loosjes, Pz