hamillei or rodatzi

[artorius]

hi does anyone know the difference between hamillei and rodatzi i have read that rodatzi are the albino body and shell of hamillei but this seems to be a subject of much debate but then have searched further on the intenet and seen pictures like this one which say they are rodatzi, the picture attached is what i know as hamillei

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[heydihoo]

hi
roatzi are a plain shelled version of achatina fulica hamillei

[ness]

Achatina fulica v.hamillei really refers to a genetic trait within the snail. They look like normal Achatina fulica (striped shells and brown/grey bodies) but genetically if the breed they can (and usually do) produce some snails with the plain orange shells.
These plain shelled snails are Achatina fulica hamillei f. rodatzi. Most people just refer to them as rodatzi. Sometimes people refer to rodatzi as having albino shells. This isn't correct really.

Achatina fulica with albino bodies, up until recent years, were Jades. These snails have normal striped shells and white bodies.

There is now another variety which resulted from mating a rodatzi with a Jade, named (unoficially) Jadatzi. The Jadatzi refers to the genetic line, and can come in four colour combinations....
Achatina fulica var. jadatzi f. standard (looks like a normal striped shell dark bodied A. fulica)
Achatina fulica var. jadatzi f. rodatzi (looks like a rodatzi - dark body, plain goldern-orange-yellow shell)
Achatina fulica var. jadatzi f. Jade (looks like a Jade - white body, striped shell)
Achatina fulica var. jadatzi f. construct (has a plain golden-yellow shell like a rodatzi, and an albino white body like a Jade).

It gets confusing because people refer to any of the above as Jadatzi, though qiute often people refer to only the 'construct' as Jadatzi.

People also refer to rodatzi as hamillei, and hamillei as rodatzi - it can be confusing. Sorry!

To answer your question - an albino body and shell is NOT a rodatzi, it's a jadatzi f. construct.
A hamillei should only be called a rodatzi if it has a plain golden shell (rodatzi being the plain-shelled form of a hamillei).

Hope that helps, sorry if it causes further confusion!

[artorius]

hi

thanks for the replys its starting to make more sense now, its confusing but fun to figure out thanks for the help its really appreciated ;D

[wolf]

Hi ness,
thanks a lot for your very helpful post .
Sorry for some short remarks.
As far as I know, “hamillei” was described as a true species by E. Smith in 1881 (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1881, p. 282, pl.32, Fig. 10), perhaps even earlier by Petit in the year 1858. In those days it was therefore called “Achatina hamillei”, differing from Achatina fulica mainly in a smaller hight to width – ratio (kind of “bulbous” shell, whereas A. fulica being more slender). Furthermore, in A. hamillei the streaks on the last whorl tend to fuse (see Martens, E. von (1897): Beschalte Weichthiere Deutsch-Ost-Afrikas – Dietrich Reimer (Ernst Vohsen), Berlin.), so that the ultimate whorl becomes remarkable dark. In later years, hamillei became a subspecies of A. fulica. So we ended up in “Achatina fulica ssp. hamillei” = “Achatina fulica hamillei”.
In 1852, “Achatina rodatzi“ was described (as a true species, as usual.......) in Dunker, W. (1852): Diagnoses molluscorum novorum -- Zeitschrift für Malakozoologie 9: 125-128, 189-191, Cassel. Later investigations suggested that “rodatzi” is only a “forma” (= f.) of A. fulica hamillei (see f.e. Allen, J.A. (1983): The inheritance of a shell colour polymorphism in Achatina fulica Bowdich from east Africa -- Journal of Conchology 31: 185-189, London).
So the correct name of a “rodatzi” should be Achatina fulica hamillei f. rodatzi, as you have written . On the other hand, since 1960 on an official level there are no smaller taxonomic units in zoology than subspecies (“var.” and “f.” have vanished, they are invalid units, see ICZN = International Commission for Zoological Nomenclature). Of course, animal holders and breeders can do anything they want (and call their variations “var. Che Guevara”, for example).
As A. fulica fulica and A. fulica hamillei can produce fertile outcome and lots of cross breedings should have happened in the last years all over Europe, I doubt that every “rodatzi” belongs to the subspecies “hamillei” any more. I suppose that the allels (concerning one or even more genes!) associated with the “rodatzi” phenotype have mixed up within the gene pool of A. fulica fulica in captivity.
Sorry again and thanks a lot for your patience, kind regards: wolf