Family HELICIDAE Rafinesque, 1815

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Family HELICIDAE Rafinesque, 1815

Introduction

This is a large family of snails, native to the Palaearctic Region of Europe, western Asia and North Africa. It contains many species which are accomplished world travellers and which have been introduced into most temperate regions of the world. Many of these species feed on living-plants and are serious crop and garden pests (Baker 1986). These snails were first introduced accidentally in Australia on plants, machinery, etc. They are now widespread and the distribution of several of these species reflects the main road, rail and river transport arteries. Incredibly, some deliberate introductions took place (Petterd 1879).

There is a special problem with identifying species of introduced molluscs and referring them to species names in such a complex family as the Helicidae. Snail specialists in Europe have stated that they can only identify local helicids with certainty when they take the locality into consideration. There is no way to determine from which part of Europe any given introduced species originated. It is possible, therefore, that more introduced species than have at present been recognised may occur in Australia.

A number of species, previously listed as having been introduced into Australia (Musson 1890; Cotton 1954; Smith & Kershaw 1979), should be excluded from the Australian faunal list. These species were either recorded from Australia due to a mistaken identification or from isolated introductions which failed to establish breeding populations. Some species names to be excluded may be synonyms of valid species found in Australia, but as their type localities are not in Australia they should be excluded from the Australian literature rather than listed in the Australian synonymy.

Some genera previously included in the Helcidae (e.g. by Smith 1992) are now considered to belong to a separate family, the Hydromiidae.

The following species are excluded from the Australian faunal list by Smith, B.J. (1992):
Helix bizona Moquin-Tandon, 1855; Helix caperata Montagu, 1803; Helix ericetorum Muller, 1774; Helix gigaxii Charpenter, 1850; Helix inflata Moquin-Tandon, 1855; Helix itala Linnaeus, 1758; Helix nemoralis Linnaeus, 1758; Helix subaperta Jeffreys, 1862; Helicella depressa Requien, 1848; Helicella heripensis Mabille, 1877; and Helicella stolismena Bourguinat, 1880.

Quarantine officers have made many interceptions of live snails brought into the country for commercial purposes. Illegal breeding colonies of the edible Roman Snail, Helix pomatia, are probably being kept for commercial purposes in southern Australia. It is only a matter of time before one of these colonies establishes itself in the wild.

The family is characterized by either the medium to large sized, subglobose shells or the small sized, conical shells. The animals are always in highly modified habitats with a high proportion of exotic plants and the animals are usually in large numbers.