World Congress of Malacology Antwerp ... - Unitas Malacologica

introgression patterns detected by molecular markers could mislead us to wrong interpretations of
non-reciprocal hybridization without examination of underlying mechanisms.
New molluscan names introduced by César-Marie-Felix Ancey
Wood, Harriet; Gallichan, Jennifer
Department of BioSyB, National Museums Wales, Cathays Park, Cardiff CF10 3NP,
UK,
Email: Harriet.Wood@museumwales.ac.uk;
Jennifer.Gallichan@museumwales.ac.uk
César-Marie-Felix Ancey (1860-1906) was a keen land and freshwater snail collector with a wide
geographical interest. He lived in Algeria for most of his adult life and mainly focused on snails from
the Hawaiian Islands, Central Asia and South America but he also covered Europe, Africa and north
America. In his short conchological career he was known to have described some 550 taxa and
published over 140 papers. After Ancey’s death Edouard Fischer (1908) published a list of his many
small publications on mollusca and Paul Geret (1909) published a list of Ancey’s introduced
molluscan names. Neither of these lists were however complete, perhaps partly because Ancey’s
articles were often very short and he published in some obscure scientific journals. When Geret sold
Ancey’s collection after his death it became fragmented and now specimens mainly reside in Cardiff
(Melvill-Tomlin collection), Brussels (Dautzenberg collection), Honolulu, Paris, and London
(Connolly collection).
Our current project is to expand on the work already undertaken by Fischer and Geret and to provide
a definitive list of Ancey’s bibliography and his introduced new molluscan names. Tomlin purchased
many lots from Ancey’s collection in 1919 and 1923 and kept the Geret sales lists in his archive.
These lists provided an excellent starting point when investigating the Ancey types located in the
National Museum of Wales Melvill-Tomlin collection. We have now researched and imaged all of
these specimens and labels. Through our research we have also uncovered many types in other
institutions, many of which were previously unidentified. We are compiling all of this information
into a museum publication which will provide a strong starting point for researchers hoping to make
revisions of any of Ancey’s taxa.
Land snails diversity patterns in Uganda
Wronski, Torsten; Hausdorf, Bernhard
Zoological Museum, University of Hamburg, Martin-Luther-King-Platz 3, D-20146 Hamburg,
Germany, Email: t_wronski@gmx.de; hausdorf@zoologie.uni-hamburg.de
The Albertine Rift Valley has been identified as one of the major biodiversity hotspots world-wide
and as an area with an extraordinary high rate of endemism. We sampled land snails in indigenous
forests along the Albertine Rift and the Lake Victoria forest belt in western Uganda. 169 species of
snails and slugs were recorded from 60 sites in 13 forests which are part of protected areas. The
number of species per forest varies between 33 and 68. Between 4 and 44 species have been recorded
per 20m x 20m plot. The majority of the species are small litter dwellers, with 73% having a major
shell dimension of less than 5 mm.
There is a hump-shaped relation between species richness and altitude. Richness increased with
altitude between 700 and 2000m above sea level, but decreases with altitude above 2000m.
The distribution areas of the Ugandan land snails are significantly clustered. Five biotic elements can
be distinguished. One is restricted to the areas above 1500m in SW Uganda, another highland
element is centred in Mgahinga, the highest site (2570m altitude), one widespread lowland element is
found in areas below 2000m, another lowland element in areas below 1500m and one element is
restricted to the NE part of the study area (Semliki, Budonga, Mabira).
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