Abstract
Seven new land snail species are described from the Antsingimavo and Beanka karst formations, northeast of Maintirano, central western Madagascar: Ampelita andriamamonjyi, A. beanka, A. lindae, Conulinus randalanai, Kalidos maryannae, Tropidophora humbug and T. sericea. Additional notes, records and illustrations are also provided for a further ten regionally endemic species.
Highlights
The limestone areas east and north-east of the town of Maintirano in the central west of Madagascar (Fig. 1) were identified as areas of high land snail endemism after the first author’s initial visit there in 1996
Since a number of expeditions have been made to further investigate the diverse non-marine molluscan fauna of this area. Collections made during these expeditions have already led to the description of new land snails (Emberton 1999) and new freshwater molluscs (Köhler & Glaubrecht 2010)
The principal aim of this paper is to describe a further seven new species of restricted-range land snails from the area, highlighting the importance of the spectacular but highly threatened tropical hardwood forests growing on the karstic formations in the region as a focus of non-marine molluscan endemism
Summary
The limestone areas east and north-east of the town of Maintirano in the central west of Madagascar (Fig. 1) were identified as areas of high land snail endemism after the first author’s initial visit there in 1996. Since a number of expeditions have been made to further investigate the diverse non-marine molluscan fauna of this area. Collections made during these expeditions have already led to the description of new land snails (Emberton 1999) and new freshwater molluscs (Köhler & Glaubrecht 2010). The principal aim of this paper is to describe a further seven new species of restricted-range land snails from the area, highlighting the importance of the spectacular but highly threatened tropical hardwood forests growing on the karstic formations (tsingy in Malagasy) in the region as a focus of non-marine molluscan endemism. While the limestone itself is not continuous, it is likely that all three areas were once connected by continuous forest cover
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