The History of the European FaunaScharff, R. F. (Robert Francis)
History
The History of the European Fauna
Scharff, R. F. (Robert Francis)
Animals -- Europe; Zoogeography
Let us now inquire what the invertebrate fauna of the Alps teaches us.
We are told by Dr. Kobelt, the great authority on European land shells,
that a uniformity of character marks the Alpine Molluscan fauna (_b_,
i., p. 251). One of the characteristic genera _Campylaea_--often looked
upon as a sub-genus of _Helix_--is a group containing somewhat flattened
conspicuous snails of large size. These are found everywhere in the
Alps, and wherever they occur beyond the confines of these mountains,
remarks Dr. Kobelt, their origin from the main stock is easily traced.
They have been gathered in the Apennines in Sicily, and even beyond the
Mediterranean in Algeria. On the Balkan peninsula they occur right down
to the most southern point of Greece, but are not met with either in
Crete or Asia Minor. One species has been found sub-fossil in Thuringia
in Northern Germany.
Another truly Alpine genus, says Dr. Kobelt, is the operculate
_Pomatias_, which in its geographical distribution offers some
interesting modifications from that of _Campylaea_. Less limited to high
elevations, it has spread over a greater part of the plains. This has
happened especially in France, while in Germany one species advances
almost as far north as Heidelberg. In other directions also the genus
has travelled beyond the limits of range of _Campylaea_. _Pomatias_
occurs in the Pyrenees and Northern Spain, in Sardinia and Crete, and
may, according to the same author, be expected in Asia Minor, although
no species has as yet been met with there. In Greece, again, it has been
observed, and numerous species inhabit Tunis and Algeria. Dr. Kobelt
connects the wider range of _Pomatias_ with the geological history of
the genus (_b_, i., p. 253). He tells us that species of Pomatias have
been found in eocene deposits differing but little from our present
forms, while undoubted _Campylaeæ_ are not met with till we reach the
upper Miocene.
_Zonites_ is, according to Dr. Kobelt, a third Alpine genus, whose range
scarcely differs from the other two (_b_, i., p. 254). The centre of
distribution lies at present in one of the branches of the most southern
Alpine chain which help to form a large portion of the Balkan peninsula.
The bulk of the species inhabit that peninsula, the Greek Islands
(except Crete) and Asia Minor. Neither in the Tyrol nor in Switzerland
do we find any _Zonites_, and the few species that do occur in the
south-eastern Alps only just cross the outliers of these mountains.
Between the south-western Alps and the Rhone we again find a
_Zonites_--a remarkable case of discontinuous distribution, since the
nearest other habitat of the genus is Monte Gargano in South-eastern
Italy, which is known to harbour a good many interesting geographical
puzzles.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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