Cyclophorid Land Snails are the
most abundant group of terrestrial operculate Gastropods (Land Snails having an
operculum, a lid which can be used to plug the shell opening) in Africa, Asia
and Australia, and comprise 53 of the 234 known Land Snails in Thailand.
Members of the genus Pearsonia are
distinguished by a flattened, but not quite disk-shaped shell with a
distinctive sutural tube that originates from the suture (join between two
whorls of the shell) at the last part of the body whorl; they are known from
India, Myanmar, South China, Laos and Malaysia, but have not previously been
recorded from Thailand.
In a paper published in the
Raffles Bulletin of Zoology on 1 July 2015, Sakboworn Tumpeesuwan of the Department
of Biology and Palaeontological Research and Education Centre at Mahasarakham University and Chanidaporn Tumpeesuwan, also of the Department of Biology at Mahasarakham
University describe a new species of Pearsonia
from Lamphun Province in northern Thailand, the first member of the genus found
in the country.
The new species is named Pearsonia lamphunensis, meaning ‘from
Lamphun’. The species is described from four specimens, with shells measuring
from 9 to 10 mm in height and 15 to 17 mm in width. All are dextral (curving to
the right) and have 5¼–5½ whorls and a sutural tube which points backwards
horizontally. The shells have a zig-zag patternation.
Pearsonia lamphunensis,
aestivating living snail in natural habitat. Tumpeesuwan & Tumpeesuwan
(2015).
See also…
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