R. Giannuzzi-Savelli, F. Pusateri, A. Palmeri and C. Ebrco. Edizioni de "La Conchiglia", Roma Italy ISBN 88- 86463-00-6, 1994. 125 pp, 395 (mostly colour) plates.
Originally reviewed by Ian Killeen in 1996.
Published in Journal of Conchology (1996), Vol.35
This book is another in the line of high quality colour photographic guides on molluscs currently being published in Italy. One could only wish that such works were being funded for the British fauna; marine bivalves or freshwater gastropods for example.
It is the intention of this work to be the first volume in a set that would illustrate all of the species in the Annotated checklist of Mediterranean marine mollusks (Sabelli, Gianuzzi-Savelli & Bedulli 1990). Even the writer of the Foreword admits that this is an extremely ambitious and even slightly mad programme. There is no doubt that when completed this will be a valuable reference work.
This hardback, A4 book comprises a Foreword and a 2 page introduction in both Italian and English text. The Introduction gives background to the different Orders of archaeogastropods. There are several references to other works given in this section but they do not appear in full elsewhere in the book. This is followed by a systematic list of 146 species and sub-species, which follows Sabelli et al (1990) apart from minor nomenclature and taxonomic changes.
The remaining 100 pages of the book are made up of colour plates with all 146 species illustrated. The authors have included different colour morphs of many species, which amounts to 664 photographs. Calliostoma laugieri and Jujubinus exasperatus for example each have a complete page of plates. Mostly the quality of the colour plates is very good although in some cases sculptural detail is lost because of the soft image.
Most of the small, deeper water limpets and the scissurellids are illustrated by good quality SEM photographs. The "skeneomorphs" are also illustrated by SEMs, although most (or all) are taken from Waren's 1992 work (Boll. malac. 27: 149-247). Some of the commoner species are also illustrated by a colour photograph. This is unnecessary because the majority are slightly fuzzy and the quality of the specimens is not good, the specimen ofDikoleps nitens, for example, is worn and has a sand grain in the aperture! This is the same problem as in the The Atlas of shells from the central Adriatic Sea (see Review J. Conch. Lend. 34: 397). These shortcomings should be picked up at the editorial stage.
The front cover of this book is misleading. Unless you were to look at the title page or the small print on the spine you might be under the impression that this book covered more than just archaeogastropods. It was not until flicking through the plates and thinking that Tricolia was a strange species to have on the last page that I realised that this was not the case. I suspect that the sub-title (Vol. 1-Archaeogastropoda) may well be omitted from some catalogues and buyers will get less than they bargained for.
Despite these minor grumbles it is still a beautiful book. It is clearly aimed at a wide market, the colour work combined with the inclusion of all species means that it will be of use to both the amateur shell collector and taxonomists and the cost of around £90 is not unreasonable. However, by the time all mollusc groups are eventually covered (?>6 volumes) it will be quite an expensive work. One can only hope that the enormity of the task and increasing publishing costs will not prevent the work from being completed.