Morphometric Differentiation between Two Closely Related Achatinid Snails (Gastropoda: Achatinidae) of West Africa and Implications for the Conservation of Achatina togoensis (Bequaert & Clench, 1934)
2021
Achatina togoensis is a giant land snail taxa endemic to the northern sectors of the Monts
Togo, which has been regarded as full species or subspecies of the highly
variable, widespread A. achatina (L.). To address this issue, samples of snails
were taken throughout the distribution range of the two taxa in the Dahomey Gap
(West Africa) and separated into 112 A. achatina and 141 A. togoensis according to color of the columella and parietal
wall. Radulae were compared and shell characters of these 2 species were
evaluated through the traditional morphometric method. The results indicate that the species
cannot be distinguished by overall shell size and radular morphology, but they
exhibit significant differences in shell shape and meristic traits. The typical A. achatina with vinaceous-red
columella has a
low-spired shell and an expanded aperture (globose shape) whereas A. togoensis has a higher-spired and smaller aperture (a fusiform shape). We suggest that
local environmental effects are probably the causes of morphological divergence
between the two taxa. It is likely that peripheral populations of the typical
form of A. achatina would have isolated and developed in the drier facies of the humid forest that
individualized in the northern sector of the mountains after the arid or
interpluvial period of Holocene. In addition, we find that A. togoensis meets the criteria B2ab (ii,
iii) to categorize as “Endangered”. However, whether this latter should be
considered as separate species cannot be decided at the current state of
knowledge.
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