Australian Land Snails Vol. 1
A Field guide to Eastern Australian Species
by J. Stanisic, M. Shea, D. Potter & O.Griffiths
2010, Bioculture Press, Mauritius, heavy paper covers, perfect binding, 590 pages, about 7 by 10¼ inches (17.5 by 25.75cm) 789 species depicted on page size color plates with many additional plates showing the live molluscs in their natural habitat.
I am in awe of this monumental work which is the first time that the land shells of Eastern Australia have been illustrated and described in a single volume. It is a beautifully illustrated book and it has very clear and full descriptions of each of the species that are illustrated. I'll steal a quote from Winston Ponder that appears on the back cover of the book as a blurb "It is also very timely because many of the species have small distributions and are currently or potentially threatened by loss or modification of habitat". This is a praiseworthy book and it should be in the library of anyone interested in terrestrial molluscs. There is not yet a date set for the publication of subsequent volumes in this series...but I think that we should be eagerly waiting for them. One quibble and this is one that I offer in the way of constructive criticism is in the production of the book and not its contents. A book this size that is going to have steady and frequent usage should have a better binding than the so called " perfect" binding and ideally it should have a hard cover as well. Certainly the above steps would increase the already high cost of this book but it would also add many years to life to it.
