The Partula pages
Partula tree snails and the Euglandina threat
Partula snails Partula conservation Euglandina

Partula snails

This website draws together much of the available information on the Partula tree snails. These snails are of historical interest, having been first discovered on Captain Cook's first expedition to the Pacific in 1769. They are of scientific importance as the focus of the first study of speciation in the wild and being at the heart of the development of genetics as a science in the middle of the 20th century. More recently, they have become icons of extinction following the catastrophic introduction of predatory snails to the Pacific islands.

In addition to Partula information there are pages on the predatory snail Euglandina which has caused so much damage to tropical tree snail faunas.

There are pages on:

  • Summary - a basic summary of what is interesting about Partula
  • History - summarising the history of collection of the Partula snails.
  • Icons of evolution - a monograph to mark 100 years since the publication of Crampton's great work on Tahiti
  • Species - a complete list of the valid species of Partula
  • Synonyms - a downloadable up-to-date list of all names, valid and invalid, and their current interpretation from "Icons of Evolution"
  • Publications on Partula - eventually this will have links to all significant papers on Partula
  • Status - information on the current status of the surviving species, with links to the websites of the zoos working to save them from extinction
  • Research - links to ongoing research projects on diversity, evolution and ecology
  • Partula 2017 - research expedition to search for surviving species and to study the predators
  • Predators - a page on Euglandina, summarising its biology, impacts and publication on this species. Currently this is in development, but many papers are linked already

    • Compiled by Justin Gerlach: contact

    Hosted by Island Biodiversity