ABSTRACT

Invasive species are found in most taxonomic groups, and the Mollusca are no exception. Bivalves and both terrestrial and freshwater snails have been linked with many invasive events throughout the world, and these invasions are typically initiated by either deliberate or inadvertent introductions by humans (Cowie and Robinson 2003). In fact, terrestrial mollusks have been associated with the transport of goods by humans for thousands of years (Welter-Schultes 2008). In the 1850s, Cornu aspersum was introduced to California as a potential source of food (escargot), and it is now a very serious pest of citrus and ornamentals (Dekle and Fasulo 2011). In more recent times, the deliberate introduction of the carnivorous rosy wolf snail, Euglandina rosea, from subtropical North America to control the invasive giant African land snail, Lissachatina fulica, on Pacific and Indian Ocean islands, is widely regarded as being an ecological disaster (Civeyrel and Simberloff 1996). This invasion is thought to have resulted in the extinction of greater than 60% of the endemic Hawaiian land snails (Solem 1990) and the extinction of partulid tree snails (family Partulidae) on the French Polynesian island of Moorea (Clarke et al. 1984).