Importation of the Dune Snail into Western Australia

Abstract

WE have recently received from Mr. L. Glauert, Curator of the Public Museum, Perth (W. Australia) a number of shells of the Dune (or Pointed) Snail Cochlicella acuta (olim barbara). They were obtained by Mr. K. R. Norris in the neighbourhood of Free-mantle, where they are abundantly found in gardens and open country and on sand hills. The home of this species is on the Mediterranean coasts and up the west coast of Europe to the British Isles and Denmark, and there is no doubt that its occurrence in Western Australia is due to its having been accidentally transported by human agency. The wide dispersal of certain species of land molluscs (for example, Subulina octona) by this means is familiar to many zoologists; but this instance is interesting from more than one point of view.