A Guide to Land Snails of Australia
By: John Stanisic, Darryl Potter, Lorelle Stanisic
An introduction to Australia's diverse land snails, their natural history, biology and identification.
Australia's native land snails are an often-overlooked invertebrate group that forms a significant part of terrestrial biodiversity, with an estimated 2500 species present in Australia today. + Full description
A Guide to Land Snails of Australia is an overview of Australia's native and introduced land snail faunas, offering a greater understanding of their role in the natural environment. The book presents clear diagnostic features of live snails and their shells, and is richly illustrated with a broad range of Australia's native snail, semi-slug and slug species. Comprehensive coverage is also included of the many exotic species introduced to Australia.
In a unique bioregional approach, the reader is taken on a trek through some of Australia's spectacular regional landscapes, highlighting their endemic and special snail faunas. This section is supplemented with key localities where species can be found.
Certificate of Commendation, The Royal Zoological Society of NSW 2023 Whitley Awards: Zoology Guide
- Short descriptionNews
Read more on our blog:
Dr John Stanisic shares where his interest in Australia’s native land snails began, and what makes these slimy species so spectacular: On the Slime Trail with Dr John Stanisic – The Snail Whisperer.
Reviews
"This guide presents an overview of both native and introduced snail species around the country, offering a greater understanding of their role in our natural environment. It’s packed with information, beautiful photographs and diagrams, which include detailed features of snails and their shells. It also lists a broad range of Australia’s native snail, semi-slug and slug species, plus many of the large number of introduced exotic species."
Gardening Australia magazine, October 2022
"Overall, this book is richly illustrated throughout, well presented and is an excellent first introduction to Native Australian Landsnails."
Ben Schneider, Western Australian Naturalists Club, 30 September 2022
"The book offers clear diagnostic features of live snails and their shells, and is richly illustrated with a broad range of snails, semi-slugs, and slugs (shell-less snails)"
Australian Wildlife Volume 4, Spring 2022
Details
Paperback | July 2022 | $ 49.99ISBN: 9781486313525 | 184 pages | 215 x 148 mm
Publisher: CSIRO Publishing
B&W photographs, Colour photographs, Illustrations
ePDF | July 2022
ISBN: 9781486313532
Publisher: CSIRO Publishing
Available from eRetailers
ePUB | July 2022
ISBN: 9781486313549
Publisher: CSIRO Publishing
Available from eRetailers
Features
- Profiles and provides diagnostic features for the 27 native Australian land snail families
- Includes information on the 47 introduced species and their families
- Highlights more than 160 of Australia’s most iconic species with photographs of selected live snails
- Provides a pictorial guide to the common shell shapes of families to assist with identification
- Takes a bioregional approach to snail identification, outlining key localities where species can be found
- Includes tips on how, when and where to collect Australian land snails
Contents
AcknowledgementsPreface: A snail whisperer's odyssey
Introduction
1: The discovery and study of Australia’s native land snails
2: Land snail form and function
3: Land snail behaviour
4: Snails in the environment
5: Identification of land snails
6: Australian native land snail families
7: Snails introduced to Australia
8: Regional land snail faunas
9: Collecting land snails
10: Human uses of land snails
Appendix: Classification of Australia's land snails
Glossary
References
Further reading
Index
Authors
Dr John Stanisic, OAM, is Australia's foremost authority on land snails. An Honorary Research Fellow at the Queensland Museum, John has described more than 400 new species.
Darryl Potter, MEnvSc, is Biodiversity Collection Manager (Mollusca) at the Queensland Museum. His major interests are in terrestrial and marine gastropods of Australia.
Lorelle Stanisic, MPhil, BEd, is an Honorary Researcher at the Queensland Museum. She has completed a master's degree on the charopid land snails of mid-eastern Queensland.
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