This is a comprehensive monograph of a high standard, a pleasure to handle and to review. It is the result of a cooperative project between malacologists of the Dipartimento di Biologia Evolutiva of the University of Siena and biologists of the Department of Biology of the University ofMsida, Malta, undertaken in the early 1980s.

13 Caudofaveata, Solenogastres, Polyplacophora, Monoplacophora.

14 Gastropoda Prosobranchia, Heterobranchia Heterostropha.

15 Gastropoda Opisthobranchia, Divasibranchia, Gymnomorpha.

16 Gastropoda Pulmonata.

17 Bivalvia, Scaphopoda.

18 Cephalopoda.

The impact of the front cover of this attractive book is good - lots of invertebrates (a nice change from fish and sharks) in an artistic arrangement: anemone, soft coral, cowrie, stomatopod, ascidians, brittle star, and flatworm. Inside, the title page says: Coral Reef Animals of the Indo-Pacific: animal life from Africa to Hawaii exclusive of the vertebrates. ...

Almost 40 years ago when, because my hobby was the study of non-marine molluscs, I was asked to try to name Bulinus and Biomphalaria bilharzia carriers for the Department of Insect-Borne Diseases in Nairobi, much use was made of such substances as copper sulphate and various pentachlorophenates for snail control. The disastrous ecological effects resulting from this can be imagined. I was therefore very interested when Or Teesdale in 1950 asked me to investigate the use of a plant as a potential snail-killer. My chemist friend Dr P. R.

I highly recommend purchase, as this book sets a new standard for field guides in the field of Molluscan studies. It succeeds in being both a comprehensive guide to the land snails of eastern South Africa as well as providing much information about life cycles and animal biology for the region. For a new student the book is self-contained, guiding a student though collection and preservation techniques, to identification and does not require access to other books on the other aspects of snail biology.

This beautiful book is a comprehensive and authoritative overview of the state of knowledge of the Mollusca of Australia. It is a compilation of contributions, in the form of whole or parts of chapters, from 70 authors of high standing in their subjects and from many countries, mainly but not wholly from the English speaking world. The scale of this undertaking is reflected not only in the need to publish this volume in two parts but also, sadly, by the decease of 5 of the contributors, among them Vera Fretter, Tom Thompson and Alan Solem prior to publication.

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.

Widespread interest in the biogeography of land and feshwater Mollusca led to a 'Colloquium on Non-marine Mollusc Biogeography' being held at the 8th International Malacological Congress in Budapest, Hungary in 1983 This collected work presents the text of the 19 main papers presented at the Colloquium.

This reprint consists of a folder containing a complete reproduction of Sowerby's original text and 9 loose plates in a pocket at the back. The check list is not bound up with the text, which makes it much easier to use.

The publisher is to be congratulated on the beautiful reproductions of Sowerby's original plates, which are in every respect satisfactory. This reprint makes available to all interested an important contribution to the study of the Naticidae since few could aspire to own a copy of the now rare and very costly Thesaurus.

A short and inadequate description of this publication would be that it lists 393 species of Mollusca (out of 629 known from the area) collected by the first two authors from shell-sand from Algeciras Bay, 203 of which had not been recorded there before, and seven of which are described as new species. This in itself would make it a significant addition to our knowledge of the malacofauna of S.W. Iberia, but there is also a wealth of useful supplementary information.