Land Snails of Belize, Central America
by D. Dourson, R. Caldwell & J. Dourson
ISBN 9780999802304, published in 2018 by Goatslug Publications, Stanton, KY, hardcover, 339 pages, page size about 5.5 by 9 inches, 14.5 by 23.5 cm., illustrated throughout with color photographs, maps and charts
Dan Dourson, the senior author has previously written many books which have been highly praised, the one that I most familiar with is his "Land Snails of the Great Smoky Mountains, which I hope to soon have in stock again. He has written in the past with Dr. Caldwell, now a retired professor of biology, and with Dan's wife, Judy who serves as a research asistant. This is a remarkable book and one that covers fully the ecology and biology of these snails as well as offering us some beautiful photographs of them, many of the living mollusks, and fully descriptive notes about them along with distribution maps.The book is the result of a ten year study from 2006 hrough 2016. In all 158 species and subspecies were found .Of these 25 are newly discovered and 17 of these are described in this book. The remaining 8 are also illustrated but are considered to be of indeterminate status. The book contains 15 chapters and chapters 1-4 cover the fundamental information about these mollusks. Chapters 5 through 15 are organized by the shell shapes or size or habitats to serve as a quick directional signal to the correct chapter when trying to identify an unknown specimen. The authors hope to extend this series to some of the other parts of Central America and I, for one, can't wait to see the results
