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Post by brunni on Jun 24, 2011 18:54:09 GMT
I got this pic from a friend.  He found it on his way to town yesterday.  But then he lives near Lubumbashi - in the southern part of the Congo. I guess he meets quite a lot of interesting things on the way. The shell looks like it could belong to the Achatina balteata complex, but I think the animal gives more clues. Whilst generally dark grey, there are two distinct lighter ridges in line with the eye stalks. Do other Achatina display a similar diversity in animal color ? If so, which ones ?  Attachments:
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Acha-Roby
Achatina achatina
Acha-Roby
Posts: 43
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Post by Acha-Roby on Jun 27, 2011 22:56:53 GMT
wow vey beautifull! the skin is very similar to A. balteata (and the balteata complex like iostoma) but is much darker.. And the shell is vey particular.. have you some other pics??
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Post by brunni on Jun 28, 2011 7:50:18 GMT
Hi Acha-Roby Yes, I was thinking it could be Achatina balteata because of the unicolored brown shell and also I have read that this species is commonly found scavenging in the rubbish tips around villages and towns. Also the locality is well within the known range of the species. Here is another pic from my friend. He also sent me a pic of his chicken  !!! Attachments:
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Post by brunni on Jun 28, 2011 7:54:37 GMT
and here's the last pic I got from him............... Looks like they are all of the same snail............on the same bit of broken wall........... Attachments:
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Acha-Roby
Achatina achatina
Acha-Roby
Posts: 43
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Post by Acha-Roby on Jun 28, 2011 17:23:32 GMT
they find the snails in the garden and we have a lot of problems to get some of them........ next holidays---> africa!  the shell of this snail is very particular.. i have balteata intrafusca and balteata iostoma and they are very different in colour... i want this snail!!! *_* |
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Post by brunni on Jun 30, 2011 6:10:21 GMT
Hi Acha-Roby I haven't looked too closely into it yet, but Bequaert 1950 seperates five different species in the " balteata complex" 1. A. balteata Reeve, 1849 with subspecies A. balteata infrafusca von Martens, 1889 2. A. iostoma Pfeiffer, 1854 3. A. bandeirana Morelet, 1866 4. A. dohrniana Pfeiffer, 1870 5. A. stuhlmani von Martens, 1892 Can you post pics of your living A. balteata intrafusca and A. iostoma under 2 different new threads so we can see them ? |
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Acha-Roby
Achatina achatina
Acha-Roby
Posts: 43
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Post by Acha-Roby on Jun 30, 2011 8:40:11 GMT
often the old classifications are wrong because they do not take into account the genetic ... are probably all a single species divided into several subspecies, or "simple" morph ..
now I only iostoma adult, the intrafusca are still young and still have the classic traits of the young snail shell that is translucent and striped ... however, I will post some pictures soon!
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Post by brunni on Jun 30, 2011 15:23:08 GMT
I don't accept diagnosis..... Posted by Acha-Roby on Today at 8:40am often the old classifications are wrong because they do not take into account the genetic ... are probably all a single species divided into several subspecies, or "simple" morph .. .....but I'm interested to see the pics he posts of A. iostoma. Polyped recently posted a very informative picture on the forum about the different Achatinas. The species within the yellow lines are the "balteata complex" which he commented : 11 Achatina banderiana
12 Achatina balteata
13 Achatina iostoma
14 Achatina sp.
15 Achatina sp. ................also 5 different species !! The snail which started this thread looks very much like Polyped n°. 15. Maybe if we can start a thread for each of Bequaert's species in this complex, we can unravel this mystery ?  Big thanks to Polyped for his pic ! Attachments:
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Acha-Roby
Achatina achatina
Acha-Roby
Posts: 43
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Post by Acha-Roby on Jun 30, 2011 15:56:26 GMT
ok ok.... ah soon as possible i post them..
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Acha-Roby
Achatina achatina
Acha-Roby
Posts: 43
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Post by Acha-Roby on Jul 13, 2011 17:17:44 GMT
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Post by brunni on Jan 5, 2012 16:14:09 GMT
I'm very happy ;D to hear from my friend in Lubumbashi again, though this time he took the pic on the way to his farm. Its an Achatina sp. but I can't see enough detail to say if it is the same one as in the pics he sent me last year. He says they had quite a bit of rain lately, see the lush greenery !   |
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Post by brunni on Jan 9, 2012 7:35:12 GMT
Here's another Achatina from the farmlands around Lubumbashi  |
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Post by ness on Jan 9, 2012 7:41:15 GMT
Oooh that's nice. The shell shape doesn't quite look Achatina-like |
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Post by brunni on Jan 12, 2012 10:23:31 GMT
I agree the shape may be a wee bit off, trying to get better images from my contact. Also interesting to get a size on the snails in the last 2 pics. |
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Post by brunni on Jan 24, 2012 13:20:05 GMT
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Post by ness on Jan 24, 2012 22:07:04 GMT
They're interesting, most of the Achatina that I have seen do not have sandy-coloured bodies. These are beautiful. I suspect that identification will be a struggle by the shells, the body may be more telling, along with the location? I had to look Lumbumbashi up, it's in the Congo region near the border of Nigeria. It's hot year-round with high rain fall and a few drier months... I was wondering if it is achatina immaculata var immaculata? The climate sounds right but I'm struggling to find out if the species is specifically found in this region?
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Post by brunni on Jan 31, 2012 20:55:08 GMT
Here's the latest find from my friend in L'shi, this time striped shells ! Could be a variant of those already posted ( see n°. 11 in Polyped image above ).  @ Ness : Lubumbashi ( or L'shi for short ) is the 2nd. largest city in the Democratic Republic of Congo ( after the capital Kinshasa ) and is situated right in the south, near the border with Zambia. It is an enormous country of 2.35 million km2 that ranks as the 11th. largest in the world ! ;D |
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He found it on his way to town yesterday. 
!!!
