Beesley, P.L., Ross, G.J.B. & Wells, A. (eds) 1998

Fauna of Australia, Volume 5; CSIRO Publishing, Part A xvi 563 pp. Part B viii. 565-1234 pp. ISBN: 0 643 05756 0. Price $A295 (parts not sold separately). Available from CSIRO Publishing PO Box 1139, Collingwood, Victoria, Australia 3066. Email:sal...@publish.csiro.au

Everything you wanted to know about molluscs from down under - and much more!

The Australian molluscan fauna is extraordinarily diverse with an estimated 19,000 species of which 2,000 are non-marine. This diversity is coupled with high endemism, as much as 98.6% for the non-marine fauna. Many areas, such as the north western shelf are still relatively unexplored and new discoveries are being made all the time. Australian malacologists have a long and distinguished record for producing high quality systematic studies. Several excellent new identification guides to parts of the Australian molluscan fauna have been recently published but this book is something different again and a major innovation.

This work comprises two massive (22 x 30 cm), hard-bound volumes of 1,234 pages, 37 colour plates, 500 black and white photographs and over 2,500 especially commissioned line drawings. More than 7,700 papers are cited in the bibliographies. Seventy international authors, including many well-known authorities, have contributed chapters and sections to the book.

The objective of the work is: 'to provide authoritative syntheses of primary zoological literature on all taxa to the level of family, for the benefit of a broad non-specialist clientele.'

Part A comprises a 144 page introductory section of 18 chapters including an overview of molluscan classification and biology, the history of malacology in Australia, reviews of molluscs in major habitats, their economic importance and the fossil record in Australia. Other sections give a review of techniques for studying molluscs, sampling methods and the problems and priorities for conservation of molluscs within Australia. The introductory section is followed by separate treatments of Aplacophora, Polyplacophora, Bivalvia, Scapho-poda and Cephalopoda, which comprise the bulk of the volume. Part B is entirely devoted to Gastropoda, ending with a 19 page glossary of molluscan terms.

For each molluscan class there is a definition and general description, history of discovery, followed by reviews of morphology, biology, ecology and biogeography. Other sections concern phylogeny and classification. The general introductions are followed by nested systematic coverage from subclass, order, superfamily down to family by family treatments which include general descriptions and reviews of biology (much based on extra-Australian species) as well as information more specific to Australian taxa. Illustrations of Australian species, as line drawings and photographs of shells, anatomy and living animals are given for every family. The hierarchical units in the classifications are traditional and no attempt has been made to impose a global phylogenetic classification and considering the wealth of emerging new data from morphological and molecular analyses it would be premature to do so. Other reviewers (McLean 1998; Roth, 1998) have criticised the methodology of the classification in more detail. However, the introductory sections to the major gastropod groups give good reviews of current ideas on relationships and classification.

Firstly, it should be said that these volumes are a magnificent achievement and superbly presented. An enormous amount of information has been reviewed and synthesized, much of it available for the first time in one place. The editors have worked wonders in integrating the text and illustrations from all the different authors. Many of the line drawings of shells and animals were newly commissioned and these are really excellent; others have been redrawn from the originals in research papers and the artists have done a superb job in helping achieve the cohesive appearance of the volumes. Additionally, each volume has a centre-bound series of brilliant colour plates of about 200 living animals.

Although the book ostensibly concerns the Australian fauna, most of the families covered have much broader or global ranges and the information provided is thus relevant to biologists everywhere. No other source book has such a broad and extensive coverage and such comprehensive illustration of living molluscan families. It has already become the first-choice reference book for biological information on marine molluscs used by teachers, students and research biologists. The high quality illustrations are a particular feature of the book. Where else can you go to for good descriptions and illustrations of all those families of tiny cerithioidean and rissooidean gastropods? Some families which do not occur in Australia are missing and this is a serious problem with the use of this work as a standard global reference source. There is no list of these missing families but they include marine gastropod groups from hot vents (although the bivalve Vesicomyidae are included despite the lack of Australian species) and probably many pulmonate taxa.

Contributions for the book were written and updated over a 15 year period and in this time the concept of the whole work changed, so there is some inconsistency in the detail of approach from section to section. Also, some sections are rather out of date but this is a inherent problem with very large multi-authored works. On a personal note, I did see some of my own diagrams credited to other workers.

It would need a panel of experts to provide a detailed critique of the whole work and the obvious recourse of the reviewer is to dip into those sections where you think you have some expertise. I have a long-term interest in neogastropods and a more recent interest in lucinoid bivalves. The Lucinoidea section of 6 1/2 pages was written jointly by Robert Reid, who did pioneering work on the chemosymbiosis in this family, and Shirley Slack-Smith. The biological review is well-balanced and covers the important issues, but it is almost entirely based on work and taxa from outside of Australia and species from around the continent receive little mention. This is not really surprising because no biological work has been done on these species. The notable exception is Fimbria fimbria which was studied by Brian Morton at Lizard Island on the Great Barrier Reef.

The Neogastropoda sections were written by six different authors (Ponder, Kohn, Harasewych, Smith, Darragh & Wilson) with a general introduction by Winston Ponder. These sections are all extremely good summaries of the anatomy and biology of these animals and virtually all the important papers up to 1996 are covered. Illustrations are given of shell, anatomy and radula for each family. Although the classification used (for good reasons) is largely the conservative one of Ponder (1973), most of the problems and difficulties are mentioned in the text and the reader is left in no doubt about the uncertainties and differing hypotheses.Many of these gastropods have largely tropical distributions and I know of no other source, other than the widely dispersed primary literature, of such detailed information on the biology of these families.

In conclusion, this is a superb encyclopedic compilation which is a unique and invaluable source book for those seeking both introductory and more detailed information about most molluscan groups, both within Australia and elsewhere.

McLean, J.H. 1998. Festivus, 30: 48-50.

Roth, B. 1998. Veliger, 41: 293-296.

 

John Taylor