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Державний природознавчий музей НАН України, м. Львів
e-mail: gural@smnh.org, sverlova@pip-mollusca.org

Gural R.I, Gural-Sverlova N.V.
Helix pomatia and H. thessalica (Gastropoda, Helicidae) in the malacological collection of the
State Natural History Museum of the NAS of Ukraine and the diagnostic value of some
conchological traits
The museum's collection materials, previously identified as the Roman snail Helix pomatia, have
been reviewed. It was established that 11 of the 137 analyzed storage units (over 2,5 thousand
specimens) belong to the conchologically similar and recently redescribed Helix thessalica. The
museum currently has samples of H. thessalica from 6 administrative regions of Ukraine: Chernivtsi,
Ternopil and Khmelnytskyi in the west, Cherkasy, Kyiv and Poltava in the central region. Only three
shells of Helix sp. collected in 1875 in Piatnychany (now part of the city of Vinnytsia) could not be
identified to species level. Museum samples of H. pomatia represent all western regions of Ukraine,
with the exception of Chernivtsi and Rivne, its central (Zhytomyr, Kyiv, Dnipropetrovsk), eastern
(Kharkiv) and southern (Mykolaiv) parts. The malacological collection also contains shells of H.
pomatia from eastern Poland, the Czech Republic (České Budějovice) and the European part of Russia
(Moscow). Based on museum materials, we analyzed the variability and diagnostic value of those
conchological traits that can be used to differentiate H. thessalica and H. pomatia: colouration and
shape (proportions) of the shell, its surface sculpture, etc. The great intraspecific variability in the shell
size and shape is shown in H. pomatia from Ukraine. The latter concerns, in particular, the relative
size of the aperture and the height of the spire, which makes the use of these proportions in identifying
H. thessalica problematic. In H. pomatia shells with a well-preserved periostracum, the colour can
vary from dark brown to almost white, but never have pronounced yellow or reddish (ocher) shades,
unlike H. thessalica. However, the original colouration cannot always be determined in specimens with
a worn surface, as well as in shells that have been stored in museum collections for a long time.
Considering the large size and fairly wide distribution of both species in Ukraine, this part of the
publication may be of interest to a wide range of people: from teachers and students of higher
educational institutions to school biology teachers and amateur naturalists.
Keywords: Helix, conchological variability, land molluscs, Ukraine