Land Snails

Land snails and slugs belong to the class Gastropoda, within the phylum Mollusca, which is the second most species-rich terrestrial animal phylum, after Arthropoda. Currently at least 25,000 species of land snails and slugs have been described, of which around 1,000 species can be found in Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah, and Sarawak. Unknown to many, the species richness of land snails and slugs is much higher than in other familiar animal groups. Despite their diversity, the group members are rarely seen in non-limestone forests, where their abundance is low. For example, fve days of feldwork in lowland non-limestone forests may result in fewer than 100 individuals, but a relatively high number of species– around 30–45. Surveys in non-limestone lowland forest in Malaysia are scarce compared to those in limestone forest, especially in Sarawak. For Gunung Santubong, a non-limestone area, only two species have been previously recorded: Damayantia carinata Collinge, 1901 and Isselentia plicata Collinge, 1901, in a paper published more than a century ag