Mollusca

Considering that the Mollusca is the 2nd most speciose phylum, after the Arthropoda, one would think that there would be proportionately more information about them on the Information Highway.

Archive 2009-08-01 AYDIN 2009

Considering that the Mollusca is the 2nd most speciose phylum, after the Arthropoda, one would think that there would be proportionately more information about them on the Information Highway.

Where are all the malacologists? AYDIN 2009

The word Mollusca only meant that the creatures grouped together had soft bodies, unsupported by internal or external articulated skeletons; and this character, or, rather, absence of character, was applied alike to many totally dissimilar creatures.

Thomas Henry Huxley A Sketch Of His Life And Work Mitchell, P Chalmers 1900

Another great sub-kingdom called Mollusca contains all snails, slugs, cuttle-fishes, and creatures of the oyster and scallop class.

The Common Frog 1874

As it happens that one species of a family will endure for a much longer period than another species, so we find that some whole groups, such as Mollusca, tend to retain their forms, or to remain persistent, for longer periods than other groups, for instance than the Mammalia.

The Foundations of the Origin of Species Two Essays written in 1842 and 1844 Charles Darwin 1845

A little more than a year ago, while searching Google Books for the occurrences of the name of the slug Limax maximus, I discovered a full copy of Barbut's worm book* The genera Vermium exemplified by various specimens of the animals contained in the orders of the Intestina et Mollusca Linnaei.

Archive 2009-06-01 AYDIN 2009

* Pilsbry, however, didn't mention the species 'tree climbing habit in his Land Mollusca of North America.

Archive 2009-06-01 AYDIN 2009

For example, James Barbut wrote in his 1783 book The genera Vermium exemplified by various specimens of the animals contained in the orders of the Intestina et Mollusca Linnaei that the slug Arion ater "is an [sic] hermaphrodite, both sexes being in each individual, and both in the coitus impregnate, and are impregnated, at the same time."

Who discovered that pulmonate snails and slugs are hermaphrodites? AYDIN 2009

Mollusca does have considerable economic importance, both positive and negative, as food, as crop pests, and as vectors of diseases such as Schistosomiasis and liver fluke.

Where are all the malacologists? AYDIN 2009

As far as numbers go, the whole phylum Mollusca, although large (maybe 93,000 species recognized), isn't anywhere near to being in the same town, let alone in the same ballpark, as the class Insecta with 6 to 10 million.

Where are all the malacologists? AYDIN 2009