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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.

 

General References

Baker, G.H. 1986. The biology and control of white snails (Mollusca: Helicidae), introduced pests in Australia. CSIRO Aust. Div. Entomol. Tech. Pap. No. 25 31 pp.

Barker, G.M. 1999. Naturalised terrestrial Stylommatophora (Mollusca: Gastropoda). Fauna of New Zealand, 38. Lincoln, Canterbury, New Zealand : Manaaki Whenua Press 253 pp.

Cotton, B.C. 1954. A catalogue of introduced snails and slugs in Australia. Records of the South Australian Museum (Adelaide) 11: 177-187 pl. 24

Fechter, R. & Falkner, G. 1990. Weichtiere. Europäische Meeres-und Binnenmollusken. München : Mosaik Verlag 287 pp.

Kerney, M.P. & Cameron, R.A.D. 1979. A Field Guide to the Land Snails of Britain and North-West Europe. London : Collins 288 pp.

Musson, C.T. 1891. On the naturalised forms of land and freshwater Mollusca in Australia. Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales 2 5: 883-896

Petterd, W.F. 1879. Colonising land shells. Journal of Conchology 2: 96-98

Richardson, L. 1980. Helicidae: Catalogue of species. Tryonia 3: 1-697

Smallridge, M.A. & Kirby, G.C. 1988. Competitive interactions between the land snails Theba pisana (Muller) and Cernuella virgata (da Costa) from South Australia. Journal of Molluscan Studies 54: 251-258

Smith, B.J. 1998. Family Helicidae. pp. 1113-1114 in Beesley, P.L., Ross, G.J.B. & Wells, A. (eds). Mollusca: The Southern Synthesis. Fauna of Australia. Melbourne : CSIRO Publishing Vol. 5(Part B) pp. vi–viii, 565–1234.

Smith, B.J. & Kershaw, R.C. 1979. Field Guide to the Non-marine Molluscs of South-eastern Australia. Canberra : A.N.U. Press 285 pp.

 

History of changes

Note that this list may be incomplete for dates prior to September 2013.
Published As part of group Action Date Action Type Compiler(s)
12-Feb-2010 (import)