in Sri Lanka - Ministry of Environment

Subgenera have generally not been used except where it was considered useful and such adivision was found in the literature. Lack of uniformity in this regard is a shortcoming that needsto be addressed in future versions. This is not going to be an easy task. Box 02 summarisesthe taxa listed.The principal difficulty in compiling this checklist was the non-availability of sufficient primaryliterature of a monographic nature with extensive synonymies to enable harmonisation betweenthe lists of different authors and the lack of access to named collections for confirmation ofidentities by comparison. Reliance on a variety of literature, mostly not recent, has led tonomenclature that may not be uniform. The same species may therefore be represented undermore than one name.The checklist was compiled primarily based on the personal collections of the compiler, mostlycollected by diving. Many specimens were obtained cast ashore on beaches or snagged onfishing nets, presumably in Sri Lankan waters. Some were purchased from itinerant vendorsor from shell shops. The provenance of some of these items not collected personally maybe in doubt. All these specimens have been identified personally using a variety of literatureand two web-based databases; the complete Bibliography is attached to this checklist. All thespecimens have been photographed and these will be available on a DVD in due course. Allthe named specimens are preserved and are available for reference.The checklist contains incompletely identified species, not all specimens having been identifieddown to specific rank; in some even the genus is unknown. There are a number of collectedspecimens still awaiting identification – and many, no doubt, still awaiting collection – so thechecklist will keep growing. All species have been photographed and most include descriptionsas identification often requires examination of shell features not obvious in a photograph. Inaddition to the personal collection, reference has been made to published lists by ParakramaKirtisinghe 1 (1978), Darshani de Silva 2 (2006) and D. H. Fernando 3 (1977). Misidentificationsand identified synonyms in these publications have been excluded and the remainder included.It has not been possible to examine the Kirtisinghe collection; the other two publications arenot backed by specimens.Future work towards a complete checklist includes physical verification of the Kirtisinghecollection and inclusion of specimens in the Rodney Jonklaas and Kalika Perera collectionsin the Colombo National Museum and the Cedric Martenstyn collection. All three are knownto be named. But, however many specimens are examined unless there is access to recentliterature including monographs and facilities of comparing specimens with those in majorcollections, doubts will remain.1 Kirtisinghe, Parakrama. 1978. Sea shells of Sri Lanka. Tuttle, Tokyo.2 de Silva, Darshani. Current Status of Taxonomy and Ecology of Marine Molluscs in SriLanka. In: Bambaradeniya, Channa (Ed), The Fauna of Sri Lanka (2006), IUCN, 274-287.3 Fernando, D. H. Lamellibranchiate Fauna of the Estuarine and Coastal Areas in SriLanka. Bull. Fish. Res. Stn., Sri Lanka, Vol. 27, 1977, 20-54.385