Structura izmenchivosti vidov na primere nazemnykh molliuskov ("Species variability structure exemplified by the land snails")

This is a shortish review, in Russian, of interspecific and intraspecific variability and adaptation resulting from natural selection and various environmental effects, taking as an example the land snails, principally the Eurasian Bradybaena fruticum and related species. Special attention is paid to climatic, environmental, and other ecological factors, and their effects upon shell size and fertility etc., and shell colour variation in relation with vegetation. Parallel evolution, linkage and supergenes, and the evolution of dominance in the 6 species of Bradybaena found on either side of the Urals, is also dealt with in considerable detail. And there is quite a good account of the large amount of work done on other snails, particularly on shell colour and banding patterns in the polymorphic Cepaea species, mostly by non-Russians.

This is preceded by a general discussion of evolutionary and other problems in species adaptation, including population numbers and density, reproduction and life cycles, and the age structure of natural populations.

There is a useful and up-to-date bibliography of about 150 items in Russian, few of which will be familiar to workers elsewhere, and rather more than that of non-Russian work, mostly in English.