Vol 3 Land Resource Inventory Report - Department of Environment ...

Biodiversity of Fijian Land Snails [draft text likely to be replaced by
Gilianne Brodie
Dr. Alison Haynes and Siteri Tikoca
Snails can be found in a wide range of environments from deserts, ditches, and the
abyssal depths of the sea. Although most people are familiar with terrestrial snails, land
snails are in the minority. Many snails are herbivorous, though a few land species and
many marine species are omnivores or predatory carnivores (Wikipedia projects, 2009).
Although the word snail is often used for all shelled gastropods, the word "snail" can also
be used in a more limited sense to mean any of several species of large, air-breathing
(pulmonate) land snails. Land snails have thinner shells, opposed to water snails, which
sometimes have very thick shells (Haynes, 1998).
According to a study carried out by Garrett, 1887, Fiji has 146 species of land snails of
which 85 were endemic. Germain (1932) agreed with this number but there are many
synonyms in his list. Haynes (1998) stated that her list consisted of 124 species however
her list may also include some synonyms, a summary of which is presented below.
Table 1.4: Land Snails present in Fiji
Order Family Genus Species
Prosobranchia Helicinidae 2 9 species
Diplommatinidae 4 11 species
Truncatellidae 1 2 species
Assimineidae 2 12 species
Pulmonata Ellobiidae 5 20 species
Pupillidae 2 4 species
Partulidae 1 1 species
Subulinidae 2 2 species
Charopidae 1 4 species
Tornatellinidae 1 4 species
Helicarlonidae 5 30 species
Zonitidae (Trochomorphidae) 1 12 species
Placostylinae (Bulimulidae) 2 14 species
Veronicellidae 2 2 species
Limacidae 1 1 species
Total 32 128
433