The genus Diplommatina is a super-diverse group of forest-dwelling Land Snails, with hundreds of species found across South and East Asia, Indonesia and Austrolasia, including 53 known species on Borneo alone. They are members of the Cyclophoroidea, a group of small Neogastropods which have a mantle modified to form a lung, as well as possessing an operculium (covering for the shell-opening).
In a paper published in the Raffles Bulletin of Zoology on 14 February 2019, Mohammad Effendi bin Marzuki of the Department of Zoology at the Universiti Malaysia Sarawak and the Institute for Tropical Biology and Conservation at the Universiti Malaysia Sabah, describes a new species of Diplommatina from the Santubong National Park in Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo.
The new species is named Diplommatina azlani, in honour of the zoologist Mohd Azlan Jayasilan of Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, for his work on conservation and Land Snails in Borneo. The species is distinctive, with a ruby red elongate, sinistral (i.e. coiling to the left, whereas most Snails have shells that are dextral, coiling to the right) shell reaching 3.23–3.68 mm in length. It was found living in leaf litter and plant debris near a rocky stream in lowland mixed Dipterocarp forest.
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The new species is named Diplommatina azlani, in honour of the zoologist Mohd Azlan Jayasilan of Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, for his work on conservation and Land Snails in Borneo. The species is distinctive, with a ruby red elongate, sinistral (i.e. coiling to the left, whereas most Snails have shells that are dextral, coiling to the right) shell reaching 3.23–3.68 mm in length. It was found living in leaf litter and plant debris near a rocky stream in lowland mixed Dipterocarp forest.
Diplommatina azlani, (A) left lateral view; (B),ventral view; (C) apical view; (D) apertural view; (E) live animal in natural habitat. Scale bar is 1 mm. Marzuki (2019).
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