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snails and sea-slugs: molluscs


Dr Ponder Page  |  Mollusc Page


Hydrobiidae of Australasia

Research Scientist: Dr Winston Ponder

Hydrobiids are small, usually conical, operculate fresh or brackish-water snails of considerable antiquity. They were, until this research program commenced, very poorly known in Australia. They are of special interest because many species have very restricted ranges, providing not only special conservation concerns, but intriguing evolutionary questions.

Hydrobiids are by far the largest group of freshwater molluscs and one of the most speciose of all freshwater animals. In Australia they are particularly diverse Tasmania, and in south eastern mainland Australia. The study commenced with a study of these animals on Lord Howe and Norfolk Islands. Currently 26 publications have resulted from this project and several other papers are in manuscript. This work has demonstrated the existence of some remarkable endemic radiations. For example, artesian springs, or mound springs (LINK), in arid central Australia have been shown to possess substantial endemic faunas that have radiated within these habitats and the there is a substantial endemic radiation in two major groups of hydrobiids in Tasmania. One of these groups (comprised of three genera related to Beddomia) has been described and contains more than 60 species (some of which are still unnamed) in Tasmania. There is also a large radiation of the genus Austropyrgus in Tasmania and SE Australia with more than 70 species. The paper describing this radiation is in its final stages of preparation. More than 30 species of hydrobiids are known from caves in Tasmania, all but one undescribed. Work on this radiation is currently unfunded and consequently progressing slowly.

Funds for this project have been obtained from ARGS, ARC, the Endangered Species Program and ABRS. Research assistants Jane Hall, Stephanie Clark, Alison Miller and Themo Terzis have also been intensively involved in the program, including field work. Janet Waterhouse has also been involved, providing valuable field assistance.

A large component of this work in the recent past was the investigation of the genetics of isolated and semi-isolated populations, done in collaboration with Dr. D. Colgan, Australian Museum. More recently a joint program with Dr. R. Hershler of the National Museum of Natural History (Smithsonian) has been initiated to investigate the phylogeny and monophyly of hydrobiids using morphological and molecular data.


Fluvidona spp.

Publications from this Project

  1. Colgan, D.J., Ponder, W.F. (1994) The evolutionary consequences of restrictions in gene flow: examples from hydrobiid snails. Nautilus, Supplement 2: 25-43.
  2. Ponder, W.F. (l98l) Posticobia norfolkensis (Sykes), an apparently extinct fresh-water snail from Norfolk Island Gastropoda: Hydrobiidae). Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales, l05(l): l7-2l.
  3. Hershler, R. & Ponder, W.F. (1998). A review of morphological characters of hydrobioid snails. Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology, 600: 1-55.
  4. Miller, A.C., Ponder, W.F. & Clark, S. (1999). Freshwater snails of the genus Fluvidona and Austropyrgus (Gastropoda, Hydrobiidae) from northern New South Wales and southern Queensland, Australia. Invertebrate Taxonomy, 13: 461-493.
  5. Ponder, W.F. (l982) Hydrobiidae of Lord Howe Island (Mollusca: Gastropoda: Prosobranchia). Australian Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research, 33: 89-l59.
  6. Ponder, W.F. (1988) Potamopyrgus antipodarum - a molluscan coloniser of Europe and Australia. Journal of Molluscan Studies, 54: 271-285.
  7. Ponder, W.F. (1989) Mollusca. In: Zeidler, W. and Ponder, W.F. (eds) The natural history of Dalhousie Springs. South Australian Museum, Adelaide. pp. 71-77.
  8. Ponder, W.F. (1991) The eastern seaboard species of Jardinella (Mollusca, Gastropoda, Hydrobiidae), Queensland rainforest - inhabiting freshwater snails derived from the west. Records of the Australian Museum, 43: 275-289.
  9. Ponder, W.F. (1991) Australian Hydrobiidae - an overview based on current research. Proceedings of the 10th International Malacological Congress, Tubingen, 1989: 525-528.
  10. Ponder, W.F. (1992) A new genus and species of aquatic cave- living snail from Tasmania (Mollusca: Gastropoda: Hydrobiidae). Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania, 126: 23-28.
  11. Ponder, W.F. (1994) Australian freshwater Mollusca: Conservation priorities and indicator species. Records of the Queensland Museum, 36: 191-196.
  12. Ponder, W.F. (1995) Hydrobiid snails of the South Australian mound springs. The Case for Conservation. In: The conservation biology of molluscs. Kay, E.A. (ed), IUCN, Gland Switzerland. pp. 13-18.
  13. Ponder, W.F. (1995). Mound spring snails of the Australian Great Artesian Basin. In Kay, E.A. (ed.) The conservation biology of molluscs. IUCN, Gland Switzerland. Pp. 13-18.
  14. Ponder, W.F. (1997). Freshwater molluscs of northeast Tasmania. Records of the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery 103:185-191.
  15. Ponder, W.F. (1997). Conservation status, threats and habitat requirements of Australian terrestrial and freshwater Mollusca. Memoirs of the Museum of Victoria 56(2): 421-430.
  16. Ponder, W.F. (1997). Nomenclatural rectifications in Australian Hydrobiidae. Molluscan Research 18: 67-68.
  17. Ponder, W.F. (1999 - in press). A new genus and two new species of Hydrobiidae (Mollusca: Gastropoda: Caenogastropoda) from Western Australia. Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia.
  18. Ponder, W.F., Clark, G.A. (1988) A morphological and electrophoretic examination of "Hydrobia buccinoides", a variable brackish-water gastropod from temperate Australia (Mollusca: Hydrobiidae). Australian Journal of Zoology, 36:661-689.
  19. Ponder, W.F., Clark, G.A. (1990) A radiation of hydrobiid snails in threatened artesian springs in western Queensland. Records of the Australian Museum, 42: 301-363.
  20. Ponder, W.F., Clark, G.A., Miller, A., Toluzzi, A. (1993) On a major radiation of freshwater snails in Tasmania and eastern Victoria - a preliminary overview of the Beddomeia group (Mollusca: Gastropoda: Hydrobiidae). Invertebrate Taxonomy, 7: 501-750.
  21. Ponder, W.F., Colgan, D.J., Clark, G.A. (1991) The morphology, taxonomy and genetic structure of Tatea (Mollusca: Gastropoda: Hydrobiidae), estuarine snails from temperate Australia. Australian Journal of Zoology, 39: 447-497.
  22. Ponder, W.F., Colgan, D.J., Clark, G. A., Miller, A.C., Terzis, T. (1994) Microgeographic genetic and morphological differentiation of freshwater snails - the Hydrobiidae of Wilsons Promontory, Victoria, south eastern Australia. Australian Journal of Zoology, 42: 557-678.
  23. Ponder, W.F., Colgan, D.J., Terzis, T., Clark, S.A., Miller, A.C. (1996) Three new morphologically and genetically determined species of hydrobiid gastropods from Dalhousie Springs, northern South Australia, with the description of a new genus. Molluscan Research, 17: 49-109.
  24. Ponder, W.F. & de Keyzer, R.G. (1998). Superfamily Rissooidea. In Beesley, P.L., Ross, G.J.B. and Wells, A. (eds) 1998. Mollusca: The Southern Synthesis. Vol. 5. CSIRO Publishing: Melbourne. Pp. 745-766.
  25. Ponder, W.F., Eggler, P., Colgan, D.J. (1996) Genetic differentiation of aquatic snails (Gastropoda: Hydrobiidae) in artesian springs in arid Australia. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 56: 553-596
  26. Ponder, W.F., Hershler, R., Jenkins, B. (1989) An endemic radiation of Hydrobiidae from artesian springs in northern South Australia: their taxonomy, physiology, distribution and anatomy. Malacologia, 31: 1-140.

Freshwater Molluscs of Australia

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