THE LAND SNAILS OF THE AREA BETWEEN KAŞ AND DEMRE, SOUTHWESTERN TURKEY, WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO ALBINARIA (GASTROPODA, PULMO

THE LAND SNAILS OF THE AREA BETWEEN KAŞ AND DEMRE, SOUTHWESTERN TURKEY, WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO ALBINARIA (GASTROPODA, PULMONATA, CLAUSILIIDAE)

Neubert, E., A. Örstan & F. Welter-Schultes, Basteria 64:105-123, 2000.

This summary by Aydin Örstan

The land snail fauna of most regions of Turkey, especially of the more remote and mountainous areas, are poorly known. Most published distribution records are based on collections carried out in the neighborhoods of towns and resort areas. The reason for this is that almost all of the land snail surveys in Turkey have so far been done by foreigners, who, in a country where sparsely populated areas were inaccessible by roads until a few decades ago, understandably avoided venturing too far away from towns.

In September 1998 Francisco Welter-Schultes collected land snails in the area between the towns of Kaş and Demre along the Mediterranean coast in southwestern Turkey. This area had never been surveyed before. Francisco’s collection forms the basis of this study. The paper gives the records of 32 species of land snails for this area. Fourteen of the species live exclusively in the coastal and suburban area of Demre, suggesting that they were introduced.

Among the native land snails are four species of Albinaria: A. anatolica, A. lycica, A. myrensis and A. latelamellaris. Albinaria anatolica appears to be the most widespread Albinaria species along the southwestern coast of Turkey. In 1997 I collected specimens of it at a location a few km to the west of the Ölüdeniz (Blue Lagoon), about 70 km to the northwest of Kaş. In the Kaş and Demre area there is a conspicuous size difference between the shells from different collection stations. In the paper we present maps showing the distributions of shells in the area according to their sizes. More collection in this area is necessary to understand the relationship between the large and small forms.


Albinaria anatolica (Roth, 1839). The first and the second shells are from different stations in the Kaş and Demre area, showing the large and the small forms, respectively. The third shell is from the vicinity of Ölüdeniz.	From left: Albinaria latelamellaris Neubert et al., 2000 (paratype), Albinaria lycica lycica Nordsieck, 1993, Albinaria myrensis Nordsieck, 1993.

The other Albinaria were more restricted in their distributions. One of these, A. latelamellaris, is described in the paper as a new species. It was present at only one station. Once again, more collection is necessary to obtain more complete distribution maps of these species.

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