The non-marine molluscs of Afghanistan are a part of the wildlife of Afghanistan. Afghanistan is land-locked and has no marine molluscs, only land and freshwater species, including snails, slugs, and freshwater bivalves. The molluscan fauna of the country is poorly known and contains over 70 molluscan taxa.
History of malacozoology of Afghanistan The earliest reports on Afghanistan molluscs consists of scattered descriptions of materials gathered on various military expeditions. Only the reports of Thomas Hutton (zoologist) (1834, 1849–1850),Hutton T. (1834). "On the land shells of India". Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal (1)3: 81-93.Hutton T. (1849-1850). "Notices of some Land and Fresh Water Shells occurring in Afghanistan". Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal (2)18: 649-661, 967. who recorded 21 species, and César Marie Félix Ancey (1893), Ancey C. F. (1893). "Faunes malacologiques de l'Afghanistan et du Beloutchistan". Bulletin de la Société Zoologique de France 18: 40-47. who listed 27 taxa, are at all comprehensive. Nelson Annandale & Baini Prashad (1919)Annandale N. & Prashad B. (1919). "The Mollusca of the Inland Waters of Baluchistan and of Seistan, with a note on the Liver-Fluke of Sheep in Seistan". Records of the Indian Museum 18(1): 17-63, figs. 1-9, plates 3-8. issued a voluminous report on freshwater collections from the southwestern deserts, and Jaeckel (1956) Jaeckel S. (1956). "Die Weichtiere (Mollusca) der Afghanistan-Expedition (1952 und 1953) J. Klapperichs." Mitteilungen aus dem Zoologischen Museum in Berlin 32(2): 337-353, 10 figs. recorded 27 species taken by an entomological survey team (see Klapperich, 1954). Klapperich J. (1954). "Auf Forschungsreisen in Afghanistan". Entomol. Bl. Biol. Syst. Kaefer 50(1): 107-118, 1 map. Jaeckel (1956) summarized previous work, evaluated records, and concluded that there were 37 species known from Afghanistan. Ilya Mikhailovich Likharev & Yaroslav Igorevich Starobogatov (1967) Likharev I. M. & Starobogatov Ya. I. (1967). ["On the molluscan fauna of Afghanistan"]. Trudy Zoologicheskogo Instituta Akademii nauk SSR 42: 159-197, 19 text figs., 2 tables. had available extensive materials taken from 127 collecting stations between 1957 and 1962. Their report covered 53 species represented by new material, with an additional 14 names carried over from earlier reports, but not verified from their collecting.
Alan Solem have reported 10 new taxa (3 newly described species and 6 found species) that were previously not known from Afghanistan in 1979. Up to 1979, 73 taxa of molluscs have been recorded from Afghanistan.
It is obvious that knowledge of the Afghanistan molluscan fauna is in a very preliminary stage. The same statements apply to surrounding areas, with the exception of Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan in the north (that were part of the U.S.S.R. at that time), where the summary volumes of Likharev & Rammel'meier (1962)Likharev I. M. & Rammel'meier E. S. (1962). Terrestrial Mollusks of the Fauna of the U.S.S.R. Keys to the Fauna of the U.S.S.R. 43 574 pp., 420 figs. (English translation published for the National Science Foundation by the Israel Program for Scientific Translations). and Anatoliy Alexeyevich Schileyko (1978)Schileyko A. A. (1978). Land Mollusks of the Superfamily Helicoidea. Molluski, vol. III, pt. 6, Akad. Nauk, Fauna SSSR, n. s., 117, pp. 1-384, 21 plates., 471 text figs. provide a solid basis of comparative knowledge. The probability of additional taxa existing is very high, particularly among the Helicoidea and Enidae. Since the Street collections (from Street Expedition of 1962-1963) were made incidentally to mammal collecting, the relatively high percentage of unrecorded taxa suggests that only the tip of Afghanistan molluscan diversity has been sampled. In the 2000s the molluscan fauna is still incompletely known (also with the neighbouring Iran).Anderson S. C. (Originally Published: December 15, 2004; Last Updated: December 15, 2004). "INVERTEBRATE ANIMALS IN IRAN, AFGHANISTAN, AND NEIGHBORING CENTRAL ASIA. This category includes all animals without a vertebral column. Thus it is a term of convenience that, though widely used, has little biological meaning". Encyclopædia Iranica. Accessed 28 July 2010.
Freshwater gastropods
Viviparidae Bellamya hilmendensis (Kobelt, 1908)
Bithyniidae Gabbia sistanica (Annandale & Prashad, 1919)
Lymnaeidae Galba truncatula (Müller, 1774) Lymnaea bactriana (Hutton, 1849) Lymnaea gedrosiana (Annandale & Prashad, 1919) Radix auricularia (Linnaeus, 1758)
Planorbidae Anisus convexiusculus (Hutton, 1849) Gyraulus euphraticus (Mousson, 1874) Indoplanorbis exustus (Deshayes, 1834) Polypylis calathus (Benson, 1850)
Land gastropods
Succineidae Oxyloma indica (Pfeiffer, 1849) Oxyloma elegans(Risso, 1826)
Chondrinidae Granopupa granum (Draparnaud, 1801) Granaria lapidaria (Hutton, 1849)
Pupillidae Pupilla afghanicum Solem, 1979 - subgenus Gibbulinopsis Pupoides coenopictus (Hutton, 1834)
Valloniidae Pupisoma orcula (Benson, 1850) - non-indigenous. This Least Concern species endemic to Micronesia, but one broken specimen was found to be introduced in Afghanistan. There are no other species of molluscs listed in the 2010 IUCN Red List for Afghanistan.IUCN 2010. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2010.2. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloaded on 28 July 2010. (Search by taxonomy: MOLLUSCA. Search by location: Afghanistan). Vallonia asiatica (Nevill, 1878) Vallonia mionecton (O. Boettger, 1889) - Vallonia mionecton schamhalensis Rosen, 1892
Enidae Laevozebrinus eremita (Reeve, 1849) Subzebrinus tandjanensis (Kobelt, 1902) Subzebrinus drangianus Jaeckel, 1956 Subzebrinus coelocentrus (Ancey, 1893) Subzebrinus streeti Solem, 1979 Subzebrinus griffithsii (Benson, 1848)
Gastrodontidae Zonitoides nitidus (Müller, 1774)
Parmacellidae Candaharia rutellum (Hutton, 1849) - synonym: Parmacella (Proparmacella) rutellum (Hutton, 1849)
Ariophantidae Parvatella flemingi (Pfeiffer, 1857) Parvatella sogdianus (Martens, 1871) Syama cavicula Solem, 1979
Vitrinidae Phenacolimax conoidea (Martens, 1874) - subgenus Oligolimax
Agriolimacidae Lytopelte kandaharensis (Altena, 1970)Altena C. O. van Regteren (1970). "Notes on Land Slugs, 16: Deroceras from Afghanistan, Including Description of D. kandaharensis". Fieldiana Zoology 51(15): 175-178, fig. 1a-e.Altena C. O. van Regteren (1975). "Notes on Land Slugs, 22: A Catalogue of the Genus Lytopelte (Limacidae) and a Note on L. kandaharensis (Altena)". The Nautilus 89(2): 62-63.
Ferussaciidae Cecilioides bensoni Gude, 1914 - subgenus: Geostilbia, synonym: Caecilioides bensoni
Subulinidae Zootecus insularis chion (Pfeiffer, 1857)
Bradybaenidae Bradybaena fedtschenkoi (Martens, 1874)
Hygromiidae Hesseola bactriana (Hutton, 1849) - synonym: Euomphalia bactriana (Hutton, 1849) Leucozonella rufispira (Martens, 1874) Xeropicta candaharica (L. Pfeiffer, 1846)
Freshwater bivalves
Unionidae Lamellidens testudinarius (Spengler) var. rhadinaeus Annandale & Prashad, 1919
Corbiculidae Corbicula fluminalis (Müller, 1774)
See also List of non-marine molluscs of Pakistan List of non-marine molluscs of Iran List of non-marine molluscs of Turkmenistan List of non-marine molluscs of Uzbekistan List of non-marine molluscs of Tajikistan List of non-marine molluscs of China List of non-marine molluscs of India
References This article incorporates public domain text from the reference Solem A. (1979) "Some mollusks from Afghanistan". Fieldiana Zoology new series 1: 1-89.
Further reading Anonymous. (1910). "Land and Freshwater Mollusca of India including south Arabia, Baluchistan, Afghanistan, Kashmir, Nepal, Ceylon". Conchologia Indica 2, Pp XI London. Godwin-Austen H. H. (1882–1920). Land and freshwater mollusca of India, including South Arabia, Baluchistan, Afghanistan, Kashmir, Nepal, Burma, Pegu, Tenasserim, Malaya Peninsula, Ceylon and other islands of the Indian Ocean; Supplementary to Masers Theobald and Hanley's Conchologica Indica. Taylor and Francis, London. VI+257+ 442+65 pp., 165 pls. Published in parts: (1889) Volume I + plates; 1882: pp. I–VI, 1–66, pls. 1–12; 1883: pp. 67–164, pls. 13–42; 1884: pls. 43–51; 1886: pp. 165–206; 1887: pls. 52–62; 1888: pp. 207–257. (1889–1914) volume 2 + plates; 1897: pp. 1–46, pls. 63–69; 1898: pp. 47–86, pls. 70–82; 1899: pp. 87–146, pls. 83–100; 1907: pp. 147–238, pls. 101–117; 1910: pp. 239–310, pls. 118–132; 1914: pp. 311–442, pls. 133–158; (1920) volume 3 + plates: 1920: pp. 1–65, pls. 159–165.