lissachatina?

[bookitten]

hey all
whas the deal with the lissachatina thing anyway? why not achatina anymore? i cant remember.



sophie

[Paul]

Hi Sophie,

Both Achatina fulica and Achatina panthera used to be classified as:

Achatina (Lissachatina) fulica and Achatina (Lissachatina) panthera.

But Lissachatina was promoted from sub-genus to genus so the correct
name for them is now:

Lissachatina fulica and Lissachatina panthera.

Fred Naggs, the snail guy from the Department of Zoology at the Natural History Museum in London said this:

"I agree with your identification but now consider that the name
Lissachatina, which was previously used at subgeneric level, should be
raised to genus, giving Lissachatina panthera. According to Albert Mead
the type [of] species of Achatina, the West African Achatina achatina, has a
distinct anatomy and belongs to a different group"

Bequaert lists the following snails as being subgenera Lissachatina:

fulica, lactea, panthera, zanzibarica, allisa, delorioli, iredalei, albopicta, reticulata.

Presumably, these should all now be Lissachatina. The only confusing thing is that some of the ones listed above may now have a different name. They are not listed in any of the Achatina species lists I have seen in Encyclopedias. Also, Albert Mead seems to suggest it is soft-body biology that identifies this, and Bequaert primarily used shell collections, he doesn't mention soft-body biology in the book. So, who is correct?

Are they definitely Lissachatina in light of the possibility of more recent research?
Are they synonyms of other snails we know?

We need to get a master list of confirmed species. Any ideas of how to go about this? Who can we ask who would know, the paper trail for us to do it would be almost impossible to follow? Surely this information is kept in its most updated and corrected form somewhere?

Regards
paul

[fredrik]

I have no idea where to find the list, but I'll ask around, maybe we get lucky...

/Fredrik

[ceiron]

has that been officially changed now then on the lineus classification ?

[Arno]

I think that when scientists start to mess with the classification it is usually because of difference in internal organs(reproductive organs for example)so that would mean Mr Mead is right.

[bookitten]

Oh. Thanks!

sophie