Survey of the terrestrial and freshwater molluscan fauna of the Pilliga forest area in northern inland New South Wales, Australia

Abstract

The Pilliga forest in northern inland New South Wales, Australia, is one of the largest surviving remnants of native forest on the western slopes of the Great Dividing Range. The Pilliga landscape is a challenging environment for molluscs, dominated by dry sclerophyll forest and with limited and largely ephemeral aquatic habitats. A field survey of the area in 2006–2012 identified a surprisingly rich and relatively intact aquatic native molluscan fauna with five species of bivalves in three families and nine species of freshwater gastropods (four families), including some rare species and range extensions. The native land snail fauna comprised 18 species (six families), including an unusually rich pupillid fauna with nine species. Some range extensions are recorded and some species are narrow-range endemics. The distributions of many aquatic and terrestrial species were correlated with geology or soil type. Introduced molluscs were predominantly found in anthropogenic habitats and include two freshwater gastropods (two families) and nine terrestrial snails and slugs (eight families). This study provides insight into the original molluscan fauna of the western slopes prior to landscape-scale agricultural development and provides a benchmark for future reference.