Non-marine molluscs of Western Ghats: A status review

Abstract

The study of land and freshwater snails of Western Ghats have been neglected for a long time. Western Ghats with its varied vegetation harbours 257 terrestrial molluscs and 57 freshwater species, and forms one of the megadiversity centres for molluscs. During our studies for the last three and a half years we were able to collect 190 species of land snails with 20 new reports for the region. But the alarming factor is that 12 genera reported earlier were not encountered in our present survey. We were able to collect 40 species of freshwater molluscs and three new reports for the region. In this review we have discussed the relative importance of non-marine molluscs of Western Ghats with respect to their ecology, zoogeography and biological significance.