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Freshwater snails of Oman, South Eastern Arabia

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Abstract

A systematic account is given of the extant freshwater snail fauna of Oman, based on recent collections made in Dhofar and in the northern mountainous areas. Also included are certain species found in brackish coastal localities. A total of 8 freshwater species is regarded as belonging to the fauna of normal freshwater; 7 have been found alive (Thiara scabra, Melanoides tuberculata, Lymnaea natalensis, Gyraulus piscinarum, Biomphalaria arabica, Bulinus wrighti and Indoplanorbis exustus) and one is known only as shells (Paludestrina glaucovirens). This report of G. piscinarum is the first for Oman and may be the first reliable identification for Arabia. Three taxa from brackish water, Gangetia miliacea, Iravadia quadrasi and Melanoides sp., are new for the fauna of Oman and of the whole Arabian peninsula. The finding of G. miliacea provides the first instance of any member of the Stenothyridae living west of the Gulf of Oman and identified from whole snails rather than empty shells. I. quadrasi is the first member of its genus to be found alive west of the Gulf of Oman.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Experimental Taxonomy Unit, Zoology Department, British Museum (Natural History), Cromwell Road, London, SW7 5BD, UK

    D. S. Brown

  2. Natural History Museum, P.O. Box 668, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman

    M. D. Gallagher

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  1. D. S. Brown
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  2. M. D. Gallagher
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Brown, D.S., Gallagher, M.D. Freshwater snails of Oman, South Eastern Arabia. Hydrobiologia 127, 125–149 (1985). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00004192

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