The Aquatic Shelled Molluscs of Sri Lanka

The marine and brackish-water shelled molluscs  

INTRODUCTION

THE SRI LANKA BIVALVE PLATES and SPECIES LISTS

                There are only two publications illustrating and describing marine shells in Sri Lanka—Sea Shells of Sri Lanka by Parakrama Kirtisinghe (1978) and Shells of the Sri Lanka Seashore by Malik Fernando (2009). The only printed compilation listing all the shells reported off the coasts of Sri Lanka is the Provisional Checklist of Marine Aquatic shelled Molluscs of Sri Lanka (Part 1 Gastropods and Part 2 Bivalves) compiled by Malik Fernando and published in The National Red List 2012 of Sri Lanka.

                This collection of bivalve images and descriptions is based on the 2012 checklist. All names and identifications have been reviewed, and revised where necessary, with reference to the World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS) and other images and articles available on the World Wide Web. The identifications have not been verified by independent experts; many need confirmation and possibly revision. The plates consist of images of shells in the Malik Fernando Collection, largely self-collected by diving or beach combing; a few purchased or collected by others. Names of shells published by other workers and not included in the MF Collection are also listed. Three other known major shell collections in Sri Lanka have not been examined in compiling these lists—the Rodney Jonklaas and the Kalika Perera collections in the National Museum, Colombo and the Cedric Martenstyn collection. It is left to other workers to inventorise these collections and up-date this provisional checklist to a definitive one. It is likely that those collections consist largely of gastropods. The Kirtisinghe collection has been untraceable.

                Where a generic name is doubtful it is placed withing single quotes (as in ‘Sheldonella’). Where a species name is doubtful the term confer is used (as in cf. domingensis) meaning “looks like”. The plates are being uploaded as they are formatted.

Malik Fernando

March, 2020

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de Silva, Darshani 2006. Current Status of Taxonomy and Ecology of Marine Molluscs in Sri Lanka. In: Bambaradeniya, Channa (Ed), The Fauna of Sri Lanka (2006), IUCN, 274-287.

Fernando, D. H. 1977. Lamellibranchiate Fauna of the Estuarine and Coastal Areas in Sri Lanka, Bulletin of the Fisheries Station, Sri Lanka (Ceylon), Vol.27 pp. 29-54.

Fernando, Malik 2009. Shells of the Sri Lanka Seashore, Biodiversity Secretariat, Ministry of Environment, Sri Lanka.

Fernando, Malik 2012.  Provisional Checklist of Marine Aquatic Shelled Molluscs of Sri Lanka, Excluding Freshwater Gastropods, in Two Parts. In: The National Red List 2012 of Sri Lanka; Conservation Status of the Fauna and Flora. Weerakoon, D.K. & S. Wijesundara Eds., Ministry of Environment, Colombo, Sri Lanka, 384-395 pp.

Kirtisinghe, Parakrama 1978. Sea shells of Sri Lanka, Tuttle, Tokyo

Perera E.N.R. and Weerakkody P. 2004. A Biodiversity Status profile of Sub-tidal and inter-tidal Habitats of the Rekawa, Ussangoda and Kalametiya Area, occ. pap. IUCN, Sri Lanka, 5:iii+33pp.

WoRMS Editorial Board (2020). World Register of Marine Species. Available from http://www.marinespecies.org at VLIZ. Accessed 2020-03-28. doi:10.14284/170