Annotated catalogue of types of Hawaiian land and freshwater snails (Mollusca: Gastropoda) in the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, Paris, with lectotype designations

Abstract

ABSTRACT Pacific island land snail faunas are among the most threatened faunas in the world, having suffered a higher rate of extinction than any other major animal group. The Hawaiian land snails are among the most species rich and most severely impacted of these faunas, yet the current status of most of the Hawaiian species is unknown. Most of the major taxonomic studies on the fauna were under-taken 50–100 years ago and only certain groups were comprehensively revised. New research is uncovering undescribed species, both extant and extinct. The need for rigorous taxonomic treatment of the group is acute if the validity and conservation status of the many species is to be ascertained, and the basis for such research is comprehensive study of type material. The Museum national d'Histoire naturelle, Paris, holds type material of 38 nominal species-group taxa of Hawaiian land and freshwater snails belonging to six families, overwhelmingly the Achatinellidae Gulick, 1873 and Amastridae Pilsbry, 1910; this a...