Dancing Semislug Genus Durgella from Thailand and Myanmar

Durgella, called ‘Dancing Semislugs’ or ‘Hoy Hang Din หอยหางดิ้น (Thai name)’, is the type genus of the Durgellinae, a subfamily of the enormously diverse limacoid family Helicarionidae. The genus is distributed from the subtropical forests of eastern India to the tropical or dry forests of Indochina. In Thailand and Myanmar, the Durgella semislugs have been largely neglected for over 50 years. In this study, a field survey of terrestrial snails, semislugs and slugs was conducted in Thailand and Myanmar, and revealed nine Durgella species, of which two species (D. pentata sp. nov. and D. nulla sp. nov.) from Thailand are newly described herein. Based on our findings, the combination of shell characters, the number of mantle extensions, and the genitalia can be used to distinguish these nine species. In addition, only D. nulla sp. nov. has no dart apparatus.

Read the full article, published by Zoological Studies, here

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