SYMPATRIC CONVERGENCE AND ENVIRONMENTAL CORRELATION BETWEEN TWO LAND-SNAIL SPECIES

In the southern Appalachian region of North America, the phylogenetically convergent shells of the polygyrid snails Triodopsinae Neohelix major (Binney) and Polygyrinae Mesodon normalis (Pilsbry) are even more convergent in size and shape in sympatry (7 sites) than in allopatry (23 and 10 sites). Environmental correlations account for 34% and 30% of size and shape variations in N. major (larger, taller, and more loosely coiled at northern, high-altitude, sheltered sites), but for only 14% and 9% in M. normalis (larger, flatter, and more loosely coiled at south-facing, exposed sites). The statistical significance of the sympatric convergence dropped out when these correlations were removed. This phenomenon helps account for the many cases in eastern North America of nearly identical land-snail shells in sympatry and questions the importance of competitive character displacement in the evolution of land-snail shell morphology. This apparently nonmimetic case of sympatric convergence provides an unusually precise and well-delimited, naturally replicated experiment in evolutionary morphology, which is analyzed for controlling factors in a follow-up paper.     

云南管螺属一新种记述(肺螺亚纲,柄眼目,烟管螺科)

记述采自云南省石林县陆生贝类1新种,即石林管螺Phaedusa shilinensis sp.nov.,文中对新种形态特征、栖息环境进行了描述,并对其相似种进行了分析和讨论。     

甘肃管螺属一新种记述(肺螺亚纲,柄眼目,烟管螺科)

记述采自甘肃省文县陆生贝类1新种,文县管螺Phaedusa wenxianensis sp.nov.,对新种形态特征、栖息环境进行了描述,并与其相似种进行了分析和讨论。     

贵州洞穴淡水、陆生贝类区系及新种记述

首次报道了贵州省安龙县、贵阳市、独山县、荔波县、安顺市、开阳县、息烽县、盘县、兴义市、大方县、普定县等39个洞穴内不同生境的淡水、陆生贝类,经鉴定得淡水、陆生螺类共计71种,分隶于15科,36属,其中淡水螺类3科4属5种;陆生螺类66种,12科32属;1新种,即荔波双边凹螺Chamalycaeus libonensis sp.nov.附有种类名录,栖息环境及地理分布,并对洞穴中的淡水、陆生贝类区系组成进行了讨论,对新种进行了详细的描述,与近似种进行了比较。     

中国真蛞蝓类的分布和物种多样性研究(柄眼目:腹足纲)

对我国真蛞蝓类物种的分布特点和多样性特点进行了描述和分析,真蛞蝓物种多样性具有从中南向南北分别递减,随海拔高度升高而递减,从温湿多雨区向干旱区递减的总体特点,其分布类型为：Deroceras laeve分布于各类可能存在真蛞蝓自然分布的地区,而Deroceras altaicum分布上介于高山型和丘陵平原型之间。Anadenus属为高山型分布;Meghimatium属为丘陵平原型分布;Limax属和Lehmannia valentiana在各不同地区均间有分布。     

DNA barcoding of stylommatophoran land snails: a test of existing sequences

DNA barcoding has attracted attention because it is a potentially simple and universal method for taxonomic assignment. One anticipated problem in applying the method to stylommatophoran land snails is that they frequently exhibit extreme divergence of mitochondrial DNA sequences, sometimes reaching 30% within species. We therefore trialled the utility of barcodes in identifying land snails, by analysing the stylommatophoran cytochrome oxidase subunit I sequences from GenBank. Two alignments of 381 and 228 base pairs were used to determine potential error rates among a test data set of 97 or 127 species, respectively. Identification success rates using neighbour‐joining phylogenies were 92% for the longer sequence and 82% for the shorter sequence, indicating that a high degree of mitochondrial variation may actually be an advantage when using phylogeny‐based methods for barcoding. There was, however, a large overlap between intra‐ and interspecific variation, with assignment failure (per cent of samples not placed with correct species) particularly associated with a low degree of mitochondrial variation (Kimura 2‐parameter distance < 0.05) and a small GenBank sample size (< 25 per species). Thus, while the optimum intra/interspecific threshold value was 4%, this was associated with an overall error of 32% for the longer sequences and 44% for the shorter sequences. The high error rate necessitates that barcoding of land snails is a potentially useful method to discriminate species of land snail, but only when a baseline has first been established using conventional taxonomy and sample DNA sequences. There is no evidence for a barcoding gap, ruling out species discovery based on a threshold value alone.     

西藏陆生贝类五新种记述（腹足纲：中腹足目，柄眼目）

作者于1980年在西藏东南部获得一批标本,经鉴定得5新种,即通麦扁双边凹螺Chamaly-caeus tangmaiensis sp.nov.,通麦沟螺Dioryx tangmaiensis sp.nov.,曲水肾螺Pupilla quxuensis sp.nov.,芒康艾纳螺Ena markamensis sp.nov.,下察隅卷轴螺Tortaxis xiazayuensis sp.nov.。对新种进行了详细的描述,并与近似种进行了比较。     

Molecular Evolution and Functionally Important Structures of Molluscan Dermatopontin: Implications for the Origins of Molluscan Shell Matrix Proteins

A major shell matrix protein originally obtained from a freshwater snail is a molluscan homologue of Dermatopontins, a group of Metazoan proteins also called TRAMP (tyrosine-rich acidic matrix protein). We sequenced and identified 14 molluscan homologues of Dermatopontin from eight snail species belonging to the order Basommatophora and Stylommatophora. The bassommatophoran Dermatopontins fell into three types, one is suggested to be a shell matrix protein and the others are proteins having more general functions based on gene expression analyses. N-glycosylation is inferred to be important for the function involved in shell calcification, because potential N-glycosylation sites were found exclusively in the Dermatopontins considered as shell matrix proteins. The stylommatophoran Dermatopontins fell into two types, also suggested to comprise a shell matrix protein and a protein having a more general function. Phylogenetic analyses using maximum likelihood and Bayesian methods revealed that gene duplication events occurred independently in both basommatophoran and stylommatophoran lineages. These results suggest that the dermatopontin genes were co-opted for molluscan calcification at least twice independently after the divergence of basommatophoran and stylommatophoran lineages, or more recently than we have expected. [Reviewing Editor: Dr. David Pollock]     

陕西省陆生贝类的动物地理学分析及二新种记述（腹足纲：中腹足目：柄眼目）

陕西省陆生贝类地理分布的分析结果,古北界与东洋界的划线以北纬３５°上下为过渡区;东段以华山为界,西部以祁连山为界,形成明显的南北转折和东西的交汇地带。文中报道两个新种,即：Ｄｅｒｏｃｅｒａｓ（ａｇｒｉｏｌｉｍａｘ）ｂｉｌｉｎｅａｔｕｓｓｐ．ｎｏｖ．,Ｄｅｒｏｃｅｒａｓ（Ａｇｒｉｏｌｉｍａｘ）ｍｅｌａｓｍａｓｐ．ｎｏｖ。     

Morphology and aestivation behaviour in some Madagascan acavid land snails

Nine species of Madagascan acavid land snails were compared in a phylogenetic context. The two most plesiomorphic, Clauator johnsoni and C. moreleti, differ from the others by their high-spired shells, short tentacles, short tails, long necks, and crawling mode of hitching the shell along the ground. In the seven more apomorphic species, the crawling mode is smooth, with the shell resting on the tail, and the relative lengths of tail and shell correlate significantly. Among these seven species, three pairs of closest relatives (Helicophanta petiti and H. uesicalis, H. farafanga and H. souuerbiana, Ampeltta decaryi and A. julii) show evidence of phylogenetic constraints on ranked shell size. Aestivation site (as tentatively inferred from rare data) does not correlate with shell shape or size: burrowers have H/D = 2.7 to 0.6 and D = 70 to 25 mm; arboreals have H/D = 0.8 to 0.5 and D = 70 to 30 mm; the species with both the highest spire and the smallest diameter (C. moreleti) is neither a burrower or an arboreal, but stays on the ground surface. Inferred aestivation sites are randomly distributed phylogenetically. Climate shows no correlation, except that the arborcals are only from humid to wet regimes. Uniform shell colouration occurs only in burrowers (C. johnsoni, H. petiti, H. uestcalis), but disruptive shell colouration occurs in all others, including burrowers (H. farafanga, A. decaryt), ground-surface aestivators (C. moreleti), arboreals (H. souuerbiana, A. julii), and semi-arboreals (Ampefita subfunebris). Among all nine species, burrowers have significantly thicker shells (than their close relatives of similar size), wider bodies, and longer snouts than non-burrowers (H. souuerbiana is exceptional in being arboreal despite its huge size and in having the broad foot and snout of a burrower). Thus, although there is some evidence for phylogenetic constraints, natural selection for aestivation and crawling behaviours seems to have dominated the evolution of external body morphology and of shell thickness (but not shell size and shape) in these snails.