Superfamily Partuloidea | Rank Species | |
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Similar Partula, Partula dentifera, Partula varia, Partula suturalis | ||
Partula faba was a species of air-breathing tropical land snail, a terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusk in the family Partulidae. This species was endemic to Ra'iātea and Tahaa, neighbouring islands which share the same lagoon, in French Polynesia. It is now extinct. The species was the first Partula to be recorded.
Contents
In captivity
From 1991 UK zoos fought to save this species from extinction. For a while this was successful but a slow decline set in. Bristol Zoo and then Edinburgh Zoo were entrusted with the last-known colony of these snails. Unfortunately this was not a success and the last snail died in February 2016.
Subspecies
There were two subspecies. Raiatean subspecies, Partula faba faba, was in captivity until 2016.
Another subspecies, Partula faba subangulata, was endemic to Tahaa. The subspecies is similar to ssp. faba(Shell height 2 cm|4/5 inch) but larger(Shell height 2.5 cm|a inch). However, ssp. subangulata is now extinct, earlier than ssp. faba.
Partula faba ssp. subangulata was one of the largest species in all partulid snail species.
Reasons for decline
The introduction of the small carnivorous snail Euglandina rosea in the 1980s caused the decline of many native species of Partulidae, among them Partula faba.