Towards a revision of Chinese Succineidae: comparative morphology of two Succinea species from Xinjiang, northwestern China

Abstract

The Succineidae of China are in need of revision, not least to validate many previous species records. As a step towards such a systematic review, the morphology of shell, jaw, radula and reproductive anatomy of two sympatric Succinea species from northwestern China has been studied. Snails were collected from the Tianshan Mountains of Xinjiang. The thick, opaque shell and general features of the reproductive system of these two species are similar but they can be distinguished by differences in their radulae, some other anatomical details and their shell characters. The thick, opaque shells of the two species are similar to the Indian Succinea snigdha, Rao, 1924, but most likely represent undescribed species. Considering the absence of a revision of Chinese Succinea species, erection of new species must await further extensive conchological and anatomical surveys of the group in China and neighbouring regions.

Keywords:

• anatomy
• shell
• Succinea
• Succineidae

Acknowledgements

This study was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31260506). I thank Dr Winston Ponder for comments on a draft of the manuscript. Dr Gary Barker (Landcare Research, New Zealand) and Dr Min Wu (Nanjing University, China) reviewed the earlier manuscript. I thank them for their helpful comments. I would also like to thank Professor Chen Deniu (Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing) for his help with several useful comments on this research. My husband, Li Xin took the shell images. Fan Zhaotian (Xinjiang University, Urumqi) was responsible for the scanning electron microscope photography.