Land Snail Fauna of Sabah, Borneo, Malaysia

Abstract

We surveyed the land snail fauna of 13 localities including three limestone outcrops in Sabah, Borneo, Malaysia. Land snails were sampled using manual collection and identified to species level where possible. In this study, a total of 39 species was recorded. Species diversity in limestone areas was higher than that in non-calcareous areas. The genus Opisthostoma was found in all the 3 limestone outcrops. A random sample of about 20 shells of this genus from each site contained single but unique taxa among the three limestone outcrops. The three limestone outcrops were isolated by more than 20 km from one another. This result confirmed the high endemicity of this genus. At areas deforested and perturbed by humans, we found two invasive species, Bradybaena similaris (Rang, 1831) and Subulina octona (Bruguière, 1792), which have been widely spread over the world.