The extended family
23-02-2008 10:40
This week arrived the long-expected paper by Dai
Herbert on
Prestonella.
Or rather I should say, the first paper, as a
second one dealing with the phylogeny is still on
its way.
Since the first reference to Prestonella as a member of the Bulimulidae (Herbert & Mitchell, 2004), I have been very curious to know more about its relationships to other subfamilies or genera. Still, we have to hold our breath as this paper deals primarily with the taxonomy and presents an in-depth revision of the three taxa. The only 'sneak preview' is a statement that "Prestonella [is] in a well supported, monophyletic, orthalicoid clade structured in the following manner: Amphibulimidae + (Bulimulinae + (Prestonella + (Bothriembryon + Placostylus)))".
Herbert was able to recollect two of the species near their type localities and gives useful data on their ecology as well. The genus is endemic to South Africa and its distribution is very relictual.
It's a pity that the figures in the paper are not in colour, as these snails are very pretty (for land snails :-). This photo, by courtesy of Dai, shows Prestonella bowkeri (Sowerby, 1890).
References:
Herbert, D. G. & Mitchell, A. (2004). Prestonella, the missing African element in the Gondwanan family Bulimulidae (Mollusca, Pulmonata). Paper presented at the IV Southern Connections Conference, Cape Town, 19-23.1.2004.
Herbert, D. G. (2007). Revision of the genus Prestonella (Mollusca: Gastropoda: Orthalicoidea: Bulimulidae s.l.), a distinctive component of the African land snail fauna. African Invertebrates, 48, 1-19.
Since the first reference to Prestonella as a member of the Bulimulidae (Herbert & Mitchell, 2004), I have been very curious to know more about its relationships to other subfamilies or genera. Still, we have to hold our breath as this paper deals primarily with the taxonomy and presents an in-depth revision of the three taxa. The only 'sneak preview' is a statement that "Prestonella [is] in a well supported, monophyletic, orthalicoid clade structured in the following manner: Amphibulimidae + (Bulimulinae + (Prestonella + (Bothriembryon + Placostylus)))".
Herbert was able to recollect two of the species near their type localities and gives useful data on their ecology as well. The genus is endemic to South Africa and its distribution is very relictual.
It's a pity that the figures in the paper are not in colour, as these snails are very pretty (for land snails :-). This photo, by courtesy of Dai, shows Prestonella bowkeri (Sowerby, 1890).
References:
Herbert, D. G. & Mitchell, A. (2004). Prestonella, the missing African element in the Gondwanan family Bulimulidae (Mollusca, Pulmonata). Paper presented at the IV Southern Connections Conference, Cape Town, 19-23.1.2004.
Herbert, D. G. (2007). Revision of the genus Prestonella (Mollusca: Gastropoda: Orthalicoidea: Bulimulidae s.l.), a distinctive component of the African land snail fauna. African Invertebrates, 48, 1-19.