Bull 421 Jihad and Ali Bull. Iraq nat. Hist. Mus. (2021) 16 (4): 421-428. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2021.16.4.0421 SHORT COMMUNICATION NEW RECORD OF THE LAND SNAIL POLYGYRA CEREOLUS (MEGERLE VON MÜHLFELD, 1818) (GASTROPODA, STYLOMMATOPHORA, POLYGYRIDAE) FOR MALACOFAUNA OF IRAQ Hiba Mohammed Jihad* and Hayder Badri Ali**♦ *Iraq Natural History Research Center and Museum, University of Baghdad, Baghdad, Iraq. **Department of Biology, College of Science, University of Baghdad, Baghdad, Iraq. ♦Corresponding author e-mail: hayder.badri@sc.uobaghdad.edu.iq Received Date: 10 June 2021, Accepted Date: 05 August 2021, Published Date: 20 December 2021 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ABSTRACT In this study, the specimens of land snails Polygyra cereolus (Megerle von Mühlfeldt, 1818) (Gastropoda, Stylommatophora, Polygyridae) are collected between March and April 2021 from gardens and nurseries in Baghdad province, this species was recorded as a new record to Iraq molluscan fauna. Description of the most important characteristics, measurements of the shell are presented with digital photographs, subsequently this study represents the first record of the Polygyridae in Iraq. Keywords: Gastropoda, Iraq, Polygyra, Polygyridae, Snail. INTRODUCTION Phylum Mollusca has about 100,000 living described species (Hickman et al., 1982), Gastropoda is the largest class of phylum Mollusca, about 40,000 living species belong to it, with six subclasses were recognized in the recent taxonomy of Gastropoda according to Bouchet et al. (2017); Stylommatophora, the order of terrestrial Mollusca is one of the subclass heterobranchia which comprises over 15000 described species (Steinbeck, 1945), distributed among 40 families (Myers et al., 2021). Land snails are poorly studied in Iraq; some records of land families, genera, and species of Iraq are available according to (Pallary, 1939; Germain, 1921; Biggs, 1959). Many species of the family Helicidae have been recorded from Iraq; this family represents one of the most locally common land snails' families. Polygyridae Pilsbry, 1895 is a family of terrestrial pulmonate gastropods, belongs to the order Stylommatophora. It includes about 23 genera with 230 species, their size of species are ranging between 4-44 mm with globose shell, https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2021.16.4.0421 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ 422 New record of the land snail keeled or flattened (Pereze, 2008); and characterized by their thick ended reflected lip or peristome when reach sexual maturity (Webb, 1960). Their peristome may have 1-3 teeth, polygyrids active in moist conditions and some species burrow deep in soil during drought, and this family is widespread in North America (Pereze, 2008). The genus Polygyra Say, 1818 characterized by helicoid shell, globose or depressed globose to lens-shaped or planorboid; carinated or rounded periphery, closed or open umbilicus, surface striated or hirsute, well reflexed lip; aperture typically obstructed by three teeth; one parietal, two upon the lip (Walker, 1906). Polygyra cereolus (Megerle von Mühlfeldt, 1818) is the only species in the genus Polygyra to have been reported as an invasive species, it is a North American, Florida- native snail and has been spread extensively with ornamental plants and other agricultural products (Charles and Lenoble, 2020). Recently, many regional and neighboring of Iraq countries have been recorded this species for the first time, Saudi Arabia (Neubert, 1995), United Arab Emirates (Feulner et al., 2005), Qatar (Al-Khayat, 2010), Turkey (Frank, 2016), Egypt (Ali and Robinson, 2020). Due to the lack of studies on this group, the current study was suggested to add new information about malacofauna in Iraq. Specimens' collection Snail specimens (n=35) were collected by direct hand picking from some gardens and nurseries in Baghdad province from the period between March and April 2021, at a temperature ranging between (23˚c-33˚c) snails are found at the soil surface of irrigated seedlings of Rosa sp., citrus and ornamental rose, and near shrubs in the gardens (Tab.1, Pl. 1). Table (1): Collected specimens with data. No Number and State of the specimen Plant Locality Date Geographical Co-ordinates 1 11 empty shells or dead Molluscan Citrus seedlings Nursery, Palestine street 25.iii.2021 33˚214̍3.6̎ N 44˚255̍6.5̎ E 2 1 alive Molluscan and 11 empty shells or dead Molluscan Rosa sp. seedlings Nursery, Palestine Street 3 4 alive Molluscan and 6 empty shells or dead Molluscan Ornamental rose seedlings Nursery, Al - Adhamiya 3.iv.2021 33˚233̍1.8̎ N 44˚214̍2.9̎ E 4 2 empty shells or dead Molluscan Shrubs Garden/ Bab Al- Muadham/ Ibn Rushd Education College 18.iv.2021 33˚211̍3.3̎ N 44˚232̍6.6̎ E 423 Jihad and Ali The collected specimens are washed with water and preserved in 80% ethanol alcohol; the identification of snails is carried out based on the shell characters according to a specific diagnostic key (Pratt, 1981) then photographed by Optika digital camera connected to dissecting microscope. Specimens were deposited in the Natural History Museum and Research Center/ University of Baghdad. Taxonomy and description In this study, the family Polygyridae is recorded for the first time in Iraq, and the fact that the identification of this family was after collecting many specimens belongs to several land snail families in the studied regions previously recorded in Iraq, therefore, the first step was constructed simple identification key to separate these families as below: Identification key to some Iraqi terrestrial snail families։ 1- Shell higher than wide, conical or fusiform, uniform without color bands ………………………………………………………………........... Achatinidae - Shell wider than high…………………..……………….………………….………....2 2 - Large shell about 30mm in diameter, globose or subglobose white to creamy color with brown bands ………………………………………………………….…..…...Helicidae - Smaller shell, discoidal or depressed, ripped, aperture with reflected lip, umbilicus open … ……………………………………………………………….……Polygyridae Class, Gastropoda Order, Stylommatophora Family, Polygyridae Pilsbry, 1895 Genus, Polygyra Say, 1818 Polygyra cereolus (Megerle von Mühlfeld, 1818) Description (Pl.2): Discoidal shell, light brown to bronze in color, with radial white bands or lines in the lower surface; upper surface with regular ribs; spire slightly elevated; 6.5 whorls, protoconch of 2 whorls without ribs, from it the whorls slowly expanded, the periphery (last whorl) angular at upper, the base is slightly rounded; umbilicus open; the last whorl expanded near the aperture, aperture with reflected white lip, the inside of the outer and basal margins of peristome is reflected and thickened giving the aperture the heart or apple shape, the parietal margin possesses a short vertical tooth. The average measurements of 10 specimen shells shown in Table (2). Table (2): Measurements of shells (in mm) Shell diameter Shell high Aperture high Aperture width 7.1 – 7.5 3.0 – 3.2 2.0 – 2.3 1.2 – 1.7 Habitat: due to its favorable moisture conditions that provided by irrigation this species is well acclimatized to gardens (Charles and Lenoble, 2020).The specimens of P. cereolus 424 New record of the land snail collected from irrigated soil in the shade these include areas beneath potted plants, on the soil surface of seedlings and under shrubs, thus the moist soil and shade was the preferable habitats. Remark: P. cereolus is very closely in appearance with P. septemvolva Say, 1818 and the distinction between these two species has been consumed the efforts of Malacologists. The main and more obvious difference between these two species is in the umbilicus, the innermost four or five whorls in the former are less open so it has steeper- sided to its umbilical core than that of the second, for this umbilicus in P. cereolus appear less open and more funnel- shaped in comparison with that's of P. septemvolva (Lee, 1998). Plate (1): P. cereolus found in: (A) Adamiyah, (B) Bab Al Muadham, (C, D) Palestine street. 425 Jihad and Ali CONFLICT OF INTEREST STATMENT The results of the current study are part of the requirements of M.Sc. in Zoology, Department of Biology/College of Science-University of Baghdad for the first author. Also, we are the authors of this manuscript, declare and confirm that no significant financial or other relationship with any official institution. LITERATURE CITED Ali, R. F. and Robinson, D. G. 2020. Four records of new to Egypt gastropod species, including the first reported Tropical Leather leaf slug Laevicaulis at (d’A. de Férussac, 1822) (Pulmonata: Veronicellidae). Zoology and Ecology, 30 (2): 138-156. Al-Khayat, J. 2010. First record of five terrestrial snails in the State of Qatar. Turkish Journal of Zoology, 34: 539-545. Plate (2): P. cereolus; (A) Dorsal view, (B) Ventral view, (C) Lateral view showing angular last whorl. 426 New record of the land snail Biggs, H. E. J. 1959. Some land Mollusca from Northern Iraq. Journal of Conchology, 24 (10): 342- 347. Bouchet, P., Rocroi, J. P., Hausdorf, B., Kaim, A., Kano, Y., Nützel, A., Parkhaev, P., Schrödl, M. and Strong, E. E. 2017. Revised classification, nomenclator and typification of gastropod and monoplacophoran families. Malacologia, 61(1-2): 1-526. Charlis, L. and Lenoble, A. 2020. Confirmation of Polygyra cereolus (Gastropoda: Polygyridae) in Puerto Rico, Greater Antilles. Novitates Caribaea, (16):159-163. Feulner, G., Neubert, E. and Green, S. A. 2005. Land snails, p. 222–226. In: Hellyer, P. and Aspinall, S. (Eds.), the Emirates. A natural history. Trident Press Limited. Frank, Ch. 2016. Über zwei eingeschleppte Schneckenarten in Südwestanatolien, Türkei (Gastropoda: Gastrocoptinae und Polygyrinae). Linzer Biologische Beiträge, 48 (1): 83-88. Germain, L. 1921. Mollsques terrestres et fluviatiles de Syrie, X, Paris, 523 pp. Hickman, C. P., Roberts, L. S. and Hickman, F. M. 1982. Biology of animals, 3rd edition. The C. V. Mosby Company (St. Louis), USA, 646 pp. Lee, H. G. 1998. Polygyra septemvolva Say, 1818 and Polygyra cereolus (Muhlfeld, 1816) comparison. Florida Land Snail Gallery. Available at: https://www.jaxshells.org/728aaa.htm. Myers, P., Espinosa, R., Parr, C. S., Jones, T., Hammond,G. S. and Dewey, T. A. 2021. Polygyridae. The Animal Diversity Web. Available at: https://animaldiversity.org. Neubert, E. 1995. Two species of land snails in Saudi Arabia. Malacological Review, 28: 125- 126. Pallary, P. 1939. Deuxième addition à la faune malacologique de la Syrie. – Mémoires a l’Institut d’Égypte, 39: 1- 141. Perez, K. E. 2008. Polygyridae (43–48). In: Perez, K. E. and Cordeiro, R. J. (Eds.). A guide for terrestrial gastropods identification. American Malacological Society, Carbondale, Illinois. Pratt, W. L. 1981. A revision of the land snail Polygyra in Texas. Ph. D. dissertation. Department of General Biology, University of Arizona. 144 pp. Available at: http://hdl.handle.net/10150/565487. 427 Jihad and Ali Steinbeck, J. 1945. Phylum Mollusca. In: Brusca, R.C., Wendy, M. and Shuster, S. M. Invertebrates, 3th edition. Sinauer Associates, Inc, USA, p 1-69. Walker, B. 1906. An illustrated catalogue of the Mollusca of Michigan: Part 1. Terrestrial Pulmonata (land snails). Report for 1905, State Board of Geological Survey, 492 pp. Available at: https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/36110280 Webb, G. R. 1960. The phylogeny of American land snails with emphasis on the Polygyridae, Arionidae and Ammonitellidae. Ph.D. Thesis, University of Oklahoma. iv + 74 pp, 428 New record of the land snail Bull. Iraq nat. Hist. Mus. (2021) 16 (4): 421-428. للحلزون االرض ي تسجيل جديد Polygyra cereolus (Megerle Von Mühlfeld, 1818) (Gastropoda, Stylommatophora, Polygyridae) لفونا الرخويات في العراق هبة محمد جهاد* و حيدر بدري علي** .ف التأريخ الطبيعي/ جامعة بغداد، بغداد، العراق*مركز بحوث و متح .كلية العلوم/ جامعة بغداد، بغداد، العراق-**قسم علوم الحياة 20/12/2021، تأريخ النشر: 05/08/2021، تأريخ القبول: 10/06/2021تأريخ االستالم: الخالصة Polygyra cereolus (Megerleعينات من الحلزون األرض ي الدراسةجمع خالل هذه von Mühlfeld, 1818) من الحدائق واملشاتل 2021لعام نيسان و اذار خالل شهري .سجل هذا النوع ألول مرة لفونا الرخويات في العراق. في محافظة بغداد ، لقوقع معززة بالصور سجلت قياسات اذكر في الدراسة أهم الصفات املظهرية و .في العراق Polygyridae تمثل هذه الدراسة أول تسجيل لعائلة كما