⇒ A new species of land snail recorded from India has a touch of the tiger. The “snail of Sahyadri” recorded for the first time from Maharashtra’s northern Western Ghats is carnivorous.
Apart from being a carnivore, the new ‘snail of Sahyadri’ wears the name of one of India’s top big cat conservationists. Perrottetia rajeshgopali, the newest chronicled member of the global snail family, is named after one of the country’s top tiger conservationists — Rajesh Gopal, currently the secretary-general of the Global Tiger Forum.
- It is the first species of the genus Perrottetia to be described from India in 117 years.
About Snail:
- Perrottetia rajeshgopali was recorded during the rainy season from July 2015 to August 2020, in a relatively unexplored area of the northern Western Ghats running through the Kolhapur district.
- The new snail is a hermaphrodite, and its genital anatomy is characterised by the presence of hooks in the penis and their absence in the vagina and the atrium. Carnivorous land snails are known to have such hooks.
- The carnivorous diet of Perrottetia rajeshgopali – it wears a white, glossy and translucent shell and its body is pale yellow with brownish spots and reticulated skin – was observed when it fed on a Eurychlamys platyclamys, a smaller snail.
» The Western Ghats has a phylogenetically diverse land snail fauna, much of which is endemic to the region. About 277 species and 29 varieties belonging to 64 genera and 23 families are reported, 72% of which are endemic.