Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Snails from Semporna

The first phase of Semporna Islands snail project have been completed (Mac 2007 – Dec 2007). We found 45 species of land snails and 2 species of freshwater snails in Tun Sakaran Marine Park (TSMP) which consists of 8 islands.


Now, we know the species that can be found in those island. However, we also want to know why these islands are differ in their land snail’s composition? Thus, we begin with the second phase of the project – the snail's ecology and evolutionary biology.


During the last fieldtrip (together with & thanks to boss Hamid, Dato Noramly and Niza), we have started to look at their ecology and behaviour of some species. Also, we brought back some living specimens for some experimental studies. Now, they are being kept in INSECTARIUM.



Amphidromus sp. and its eggs







Obba cf. marginata, In Sabah, this genus only can be found in TSMP. Obba is a very speciose genus in Philippines. How did they get to TSMP?













Look like marine species? But this is freshwater
Neritina. Collected during the night - in a small......stream. Had visited the stream twice (Apr 2007 and May 2007) but never seen them.....but found them during this trip (Aug 2008)......strange.....



liew

2 comments:

Amid said...

When I collected some of your Neritina that night, I thought "my god, why are all these siput tuntul had broken shell?". Wouldnt mind collecting more of the prawns in November and cook them!

Thor-Seng liew said...

I have consulted the world authority of the "Neritina". He said this species might be Vittina wallisiarum. If this is really the mentioned species, then it will be the new locality record (Sabah). because it had been reported from Point Cloates, Western Australia to Cairns, Queensland, Australia; also probable in New Caledonia and Fiji (including the Wallis Islands).

This group is also known about its "truncated" spire...all the species (and indivicuals) in this group have a broken shell (truncated spire)...but why....strange....