Critical Review of Shell Discoveries

Shells were not bulk business target in China’s economic tradition. However, this situation has been changed recently. Has such shell trading affected the malacodiverisity of the places where these shells come from? Is there any realtime or potential negative influence of this business practice on mollusk conservation? The story of Mr. Jing He, the largest Chinese shell trader, shows different facets of the relationship between shell exploration and conservation and would shed light on the consideration of above questions.

Three new synonyms are recognised among recently described camaenid taxa from China. Two subspecies of the newly described Bradybaena changchunensis Sun, Zeng et He, 2017 are to be referred to B. virgo (Pilsbry, 1927), and the newly described Nesiohelix meiqiui Ge et He, 2017 is referred to Aegistohadra delavayana (Heude, 1885). Differences in the method of whorl counting are a major cause of this confusion. A further confusion over B. virgo was also revealed by this study.