THE ANNULARIID PROJECT

The Annulariid project is an attempt to make sense of the 1,600 nominal taxa of Caribbean land snails in the family Annulariidae. Centered in Cuba, Hispaniola, and Jamaica, these small snails represent an explosion of biodiversity. Most species are limited to calcium outcrops called "mogotes." These outcrops represent very real islands to these snails, and many islands have evolved their own species or subspecies although only separated from each other by perhaps several hundred feet. Some species are known from only a single mogote or cliff face.

These species are obviously at risk as civilization encroaches on them. They represent patterns of important zoogeographic movement within the New World tropics. Preliminary results suggest similar dispersal paths to those of the reptile Anolus.

Despite the presence of 1,600 named forms, new species are commonly encountered, particularly in southern Hispaniola.

Recent work includes examination of the collection at the British Museum of Natural History in an attempt to locate the missing types of Ludwig Pfeiffer. Pfeiffer described hundreds of species but most of the types were destroyed during WWII. Approximately 30 potential type lots were found in London that had escaped destruction.

The preliminary results were published in the book:

Watters, G.T. 2006. The Caribbean Land Snail Family Annulariidae: A Revision of the Higher Taxa and a Catalog of the Species. Backhuys Publishers, Leiden. 557 pp.

Two undescribed species from the Barahona Peninsula of the Dominican Republic