A researcher of the Plant Protection Institute of the ELKH Centre for Agricultural Research (ATK NÖVI), Barna Páll-Gergely, in collaboration with international researchers studied the diversity of land snails in Southeast Asia as part of the OTKA young researcher excellence program. In their latest publication in the leading taxonomic journal ZooKeys, the research team reported the discovery of forty-two snail species previously unknown to science, thereby increasing the number of known Angustopila species by a factor of five.
Six Angustopila species that were found at a single location in northern Vietnam
The newly discovered species belong to the Angustopila genus, which includes the world's smallest terrestrial snail. Among the new species collected in various Southeast Asian countries such as Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Myanmar, only a few exceed 1 mm in size. The different snail species were distinguished through careful morphological examination, primarily based on the shape of the shell, the surface structure of the snail shell, and the number and arrangement of teeth in the mouth opening. Most of the species were found in only one or a few locations close to each other, but three of them have an extensive range of several hundred kilometers. Based on a mathematical model the research team estimates that there may be a total of 81-91 Angustopila snail species in Southeast Asia.
The map shows how many species were collected from a single location (1; 2-3; 4-7). The map was created by Judit Fekete.
This discovery enriches our knowledge of a species-rich animal group about which we previously had little information.