Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2019 Nov 8:26:13.
doi: 10.1186/s40709-019-0107-9. eCollection 2019 Dec.

A contribution to knowledge on the terrestrial malacofauna of the Kastellorizo (Megisti) island group (SE Greece)

Moisis Mylonas  1   2 , Katerina Vardinoyannis  1 , Nikos Poulakakis  1   2
Affiliations

A contribution to knowledge on the terrestrial malacofauna of the Kastellorizo (Megisti) island group (SE Greece)

Moisis Mylonas et al. J Biol Res (Thessalon). .

Abstract

Background: The Kastellorizo island group (in the Dodecanese, Greece) is situated in the southeast corner of the Aegean Archipelago. It consists of twenty islets, of which the three largest (Kastellorizo, Ro and Strongyli) and seven smaller ones belong to Greece. Knowledge of the malacofauna on the islands is relatively poor. Only eight species were known prior to the present study, all from the islet of Kastellorizo.

Results: Here, using the scientific collections at the Natural History Museum of Crete collected mainly by the authors and also by several researchers since 1976, we reappraise the malacofauna of the island group. Thirty-one species were found in total (23 from Kastellorizo, 19 from Ro, 15 from Strongyli, 10 from Agios Georgios, 14 from Agrielia, 6 from Psomi and 10 from Psoradia).

Conclusions: The fact that there are no endemic snail species in the islands can be accounted for by their proximity to the Turkish coast, their common paleogeography with Turkey until the Late Pleistocene and Holocene, and the influence of humans. All but two species, Mastus etuberculatus and Vitrea riedeliana, are known from the adjacent Turkish coasts. Together with the subfossil species found on the smaller islets, the predominance of different species on each islet suggests a continuous substitution from the source areas of Turkey and the Aegean.

Keywords: Biodiversity; Biogeography; Ecology; Land Gastropods; Taxonomy.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Competing interestsThe authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
The studied islets and the sampling sites on Kastellorizo
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Shells of a Helix asemnis; b Helix nucula; c Mastus rossmaessleri; d Mastus etuberculatus
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Shell and genitalia of Metafruticicola schuberti (a–c) and Metafruticola rugosissima (d–f). M. schuberti a: shell; b genitalia; c penis papilla. M. rugosissima, d shell; e genitalia; f penis papilla
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Shells of a Cecilioides michoniana; b Cecilioides tumulorum; c Vitrea riedeliana; d Vitrea contracta
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Mavrommatis G. Bioclimatic map of Greece. Institute of Forest Research. 1978.
    1. Neubert E. Revision of Helix Linnaeus, 1758 in its eastern Mediterranean distribution area, and reassignment of Helix godetiana Kobelt, 1878 to Maltzanella Hesse, 1917 (Gastropoda, Pulmonata, Helicidae) Contrib Nat Hist. 2014;26:1–200.
    1. Neubert E, Örstan A, Welter-Schultes F. The land snails of the area between Kas and Demre, southwestern Turkey, with special reference to Albinaria (Gastropoda, Pulmonata, Clausiliidae) Basteria. 2000;64:105–123.
    1. Schütt H. Turkish Land Snails. 4. Solingen: Verlag Natur & Wissenschaft; 2005.
    1. Bank RA, Gittenberger E, Neubert E. Radiation of an eastern Mediterranean landsnail genus: revision of the taxa belonging to Metafruticicola von Ihering, 1892 (Gastropoda, Pulmonata: Hygromiidae) Arch Molluskenkunde. 2013;142:67–136.