A study of Maltese seashells

Abstract

The seashells around the Maltese Islands are quite numerous, as they run into the 500 figure, but the Mediterranean shells are not spectacular so far as size is concerned, and therefore you may find more amateurs, even in the Maltese Islands themselves, who are more interested in the tropical shells rather than our own. There is barely a handful of people in Malta who know the local shells well enough to speak about them, because their study requires more effort, and involves more difficulties as regards collecting techniques, especially since there is no appreciable tide to facilitate matters. The species met with around us are typically central Mediterranean, and strictly speaking we cannot say that there is anything Maltese about them, except that they are within territorial waters. There has been the mention of Gibbula nivosa (A. Adams) 1851 as being endemic to Malta, but I have my doubts as to whether it is really a separate species, or merely a form of another of the top-shells, but it does not appear to exist here at all.