Diversity and composition of the snail fauna of the natural reserve Panguana in the Amazonian rainforest in Peru
While the diversity of the snail communities in rainforests in Africa and Asia has been investigated at least at several sites over the past two decades, there is hardly any quantitative study of the diversity and composition of the snail fauna of rainforests in South America. This lack of data from South America hampers global comparisons between the different continents and the analysis of the factors contributing to the differences in the diversity of the snail fauna in different regions.
Therefore, we have intensively sampled the snail fauna of the natural reserve Panguana in the Amazonian rainforest in Peru on an expedition. We are sorting and determining the extensive yield of micromolluscs from numerous soil samples. While the few larger species found in the reserve have long been known, a large number of previously unknown species are found among the micromolluscs. Similar to the rainforests of Africa, the proportion of carnivorous species is large. While the carnivorous species in Africa belong to the family Streptaxidae, which also occurs in other continents, the species found in the Amazonian rainforest are predominantly representatives of the family Scolodontidae, which is restricted to the Americas.
- Bachelor thesis Birte Wendebourg.