New records of non-marine, non-camaenid, non-camaenid gastropods (Mollusca: Gastropoda) from islands off the Kimberley coast, Western Australia
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Abstract
The coast of the Western Australian Kimberley boasts an archipelago that comprises several hundred large islands and thousands much smaller. While the non–marine gastropod fauna of the Kimberley mainland has been surveyed to some extent, the fauna of these islands had never been comprehensively surveyed and only anecdotal and unsystematic data on species occurrences have been available. During the Western Australian Department of Environment and Conservation’s Kimberley Island Survey, 2008–2010, 22 of the largest islands were surveyed. Altogether, 17 species of terrestrial non–camaenid snails were found on these islands. This corresponds to about 75% of all terrestrial, non–camaenid gastropods known from the entire Kimberley region. In addition, four species of pulmonate freshwater snails were found to occur on one or more of four of these islands. Individual islands harbour up to 15, with an average of eight, species each. Species diversity was found to be higher in the wetter parts of the region
