CURRENT PROBLEMS IN THE RESEARCH OF CEPAEA POLYMORPHISM

ABSTRACT: Shell polymorphism in the land snails of the genus Cepaea has been studied for more than a cen-tury. Although these studies have taught us much about the ways in which evolutionary forces work at the population level, many problems are still unresolved. Studies of shell polymorphism, especially in populations living at the edges of the species ’ geographical distribution, long-term surveys of morph frequencies in se-lected populations, studies of the dispersal abilities of Cepaea snails and of differences in physiology and behav-iour among morphs will help to answer outstanding questions, which have direct relevance to our under-standing of microevolutionary processes generally. KEY WORDS: ecogenetics, edge of the range, evolution, land snails, Cepaea, natural selection, population gen-etics, snail mobility, species distribution The polymorphic land snails of the genus Cepaea are perhaps the most striking species in the European land snail fauna. They are also among the best studied animals, their variation having attracted the attention of biologists for more than a century (CAMERON 1997). Although these studies have taught us muc