Cochlicopa lubricella and Helix aspersa as alien land snails (Gastropoda, Pulmonata) in Zimbabwe/Rhodesia

Two Holarctic species of Cochlicopa Risso, 1826, viz., C. lubricella (Porro, 1838) and C. lubrica (Müller, 1774), have been repeatedly recorded from southern Africa (Van Bruggen, 1967, 1980). A new record shows the first of these species to expand its distribution rapidly, although both are fortunately still restricted to the urban centres. Recently one of our correspondents, Mrs. Cécile Granville of Schagen (Transvaal), submitted another sample for identification, this time from Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia). The material was obtained in October 1980 in an old, well established garden at 35 Arundel School Road in Mount Pleasant, a northern residential suburb of Salisbury, by Mrs. Jennifer A. Conway: ‘... she found them in a few minutes all in a clump and wondered if they were mating or just newly hatched.’ (Mrs. C. Granville, in litt. 22.X.1980). The sample, preserved in alcohol in the Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie (Leiden), consists of 38 specimens, a proportion of which are juvenile (smallest shell 3.2 mm long with ca. 3½ whorls). This proves that here we have to do with a vigorous and healthy, reproducing population. Snail control measures aimed at Helix aspersa (see below) in the form of the usual snail bait may have had some effect though.