Raffles Bulletin of Zoology: New animals named after Singapore!

A land snail and a mangrove slug have been named after Singapore! The latest issue of the Raffles Bulletin of Zoology (RBZ 59(1): 1–115. 28 February 2011) features these and other fascinating papers.

The Singapore population of these beautiful green land snails have been described as Amphidromus atricallosus temasek, a new subspecies!

More about this new subspecies in the paper: A new subspecies of Amphidromus (Amphidromus) atricallosus from Singapore (Mollusca: Gastropoda: Camaenidae). Siong Kiat Tan, Sow Yan Chan Somsak Panha. Pp. 39–46 [pdf, 246 KB]

Commonly known as the Green tree snail, this pretty snail spends much of it time in shrubs or trees. In Singapore, it is said to occur only in the Nee Soon Swamp Forest and can sometimes be seen grazing on concrete structures. Recent work suggests it is also found in other parts of our nature reserves where there is older or less disturbed forest and on Pulau Tekong.

More about the biology of our Green tree snails in this Nature in Singapore article: Lok, A. F. S. L. & S. K. Tan, 2008. A review of the Singapore status of the green tree snail, Amphidromus atricallosus perakensis Fulton, 1901 and its biology. Nature in Singapore, 1: 225–230. [PDF, 597 KB]

A Singapore mangrove slug!

Another newly described animal bearing Singapore's name is Elysia singaporensis a slug that was found in "old mangrove forest bordering east side of Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve".

It is tiny! When alive, it is only about 30mm long. When well fed with algae, it is green. It has "ruddy specks" on the upper and undersides including foot sole, forming a line over the upper sides of the rhinophores.

All the fascinating details are in the paper: Large mangrove-dwelling Elysia species in Asia, with descriptions of two new species (GAstropoda: Opistobranchia: Sacoglossa). Cornelis (Kees) Swennen. Pp. 29–37 [pdf, 223 KB]

More on our monkeys

Also in this Bulletin issue is a paper looking at our Long-tailed macaques. Are they all the same or different? More in this paper: Preliminary report on mitochondrial DNA variation in Macaca fascicularis from Singapore. Michael A. Schillaci, Sandy Saravia, Benjamin P.Y.-H. Lee Carney Matheson Pp. 101–108 [pdf, 320 KB]