A luminous land snail from Saraburi, known as a “living glow stick” and the first of its kind to be discovered in 80 years, has won global recognition, according to Chulalongkorn University.
The snail known by the scientific name Phuphania crosse was voted “International Mollusc of the Year 2024” by a European institute devoted to biodiversity, said Arthit Polyotha, a biology lecturer at the university.
The snail was discovered in August 2020 on a limestone mountain in Kaeng Khoi district of Saraburi after arduous and lengthy efforts by Mr Arthit’s his team of researchers.
The search for the species began when researchers determined that Thai land snails in the Phuphania family were genetically close to the luminous land snail of the Quantula family that Japanese researchers had first discovered in Singapore in 1942, he said.
Land snails of the Quantula family were the first luminous land snail in the world.
After the discovery in Saraburi in 2020, research on Phuphania crossei continued for three years and the results were published in Issue 13 of Scientific Reports last year.
Phuphania crossei are considered special compared with others in the Quantula family because they emit light continuously, by both day and night, while the latter blink only when they are moving, Mr Arthit said.
The molluscs emit light from cells on their foot and mantle.
He said it was difficult to find such land snails because they are small, good at hiding and rarely move.
“We searched for the land snail by day and looked at piles of leaves, decaying logs and damp areas where land snails like to hide. Then we tested the snails we collected to find their luminous ability in dark rooms or boxes,” Mr Arthit said.
The International Mollusc of the Year contest was organised by the Loewe Centre for Translational Biodiversity Genomics, Senckenberg Naturmuseum and Unitas Malacologica.