Shells, stories, secrets
The malacological collections of Haus der Natur
The Haus der Natur Salzburg is currently represented in Kulturpool with objects from the malacological collection. This collection comprises more than 50,000 specimen series of snails and mussels from all over the world. However, the focus is on Austria and the state of Salzburg.
Objects, data, order
The number of individual objects runs into hundreds of thousands. Over the last few years, the collection has been taxonomically organised according to families, genera and species. The objects are stored in glass tubes, small plastic bags and boxes. A small part is preserved in alcohol and stored separately. Each object is labelled with a consecutive five-digit inventory number.
Snails with history
The specimens of the teacher Peter Sperling are an important part of the collection. They were mainly collected in Salzburg between 1951 and 2010 and are considered as an extremely important historical source on the distribution of local snails. Other important sub-collections go back to Franz Krönner, Leopold Schüller, Arthur Scherner, Robert Patzner and members of the Salzburg Malacological Working Group, among others. There is also an old collection of unknown origin with land snails from many different countries. Most of these were collected as early as the 19th century.
Traces of a lost diversity
Of major importance are those objects in the collection that represent highly endangered, extinct or rare species:
The two-toothed snail (Perforatella bidentata) was even more common around the city of Salzburg in the first half of the 20th century. The species received its German name to the two characteristic ‘little teeth’ in the aperture of the shell. The animals live in marshy river floodplains, reed meadows and in the siltation area of standing waters. All known populations of the species have been destroyed by bank stabilisation, drainage and river regulation. The two-toothed snail is currently considered ‘lost’ in Salzburg. Almost all former populations in the rest of Austria are also extinct.
The narrow-mouthed snail (Vertigo angustior) is particularly endangered due to the intensification of agriculture. The animals mainly live in damp, semi-natural meadows on calcareous ground, which is considered worth protecting. For this reason, the narrow-mouthed snail was included in Annex II of the EU Habitats Directive. The highly coiled shells of the species measure only about 1.8 mm. Small teeth and folds are formed around the aperture of the shell. This is to prevent predators from penetrating the snail's shell. Ground beetles and their larvae in particular specialise in snails as a source of food.
In future, objects from other Haus der Natur collections will also be available in the Kulturpool.