Partula

Partula is a genus of land snails, constituting 75 species of arboreal land snails native to French Polynesia and neighboring islands.

Their decline and extinction is the result of failed biological control. The giant African land snail was introduced to French Polynesia as a food source, which escaped and began destroying crops. The rosy wolfsnail was subsequently introduced to eat and eradicate the giant African land snail. It instead chose to eat the many species of Partula endemic to the islands, resulting in an accidental mass extinction event within French Polynesia.

Some species were successfully saved by scientists who collected the last live individuals from French Polynesia and took them into captivity for breeding. Others have been resilient enough to survive in the wild.

Reintroductions

P. garrettii was misidentified as P. tristis for some time, and P. navigatoria was misidentified as P. dentifera.

Partula reintroductions

Species	IUCN	2015[1]	2016[2]	2017[3]	2018[4]	2019[5]	2023[6]	2024[7]	Total
Tahiti
Partula affinis	CR	48	201	129	240	182	179	429	1408
Partula hyalina	VU	1	8	90	71	12	34	59	275
Partula nodosa	EW	220	877	1,777	-	2,528	2,463	3,362	11,227
Moorea
Partula mirabilis	EW	-	-	-	10	60	53	41	164
Partula mooreana	EW	-	592	344	-	-	-	110	1,046
Partula suturalis strigosa	EW	-	-	-	-	-	62	-	62
Partula suturalis vexillum	EW	-	374	290	171	210	49	240	1,334
Partula taeniata nucleola	CR	-	100	206	201	219	454	137	1,317
Partula taeniata simulans	CR	-	67	-	549	360	1,410	1,117	3,503
Partula tohiveana	EW	-	639	950	766	710	990	1,581	5,636
Huahine
Partula rosea	EW	-	-	-	-	1,896	-	-	1,896
Partula varia	EW	-	-	-	-	522	-	1,377	1,899
Raiatea
Partula garrettii	EW	-	38	-	-	-	-	-	38
Partula hebe	EW	-	81	-	-	-	-	-	81
Partula navigatoria	EW	-	96	-	-	-	-	-	96

Species list

All species of Partula within the Society Islands are listed here, sorted by island:

Society Islands

Tahiti

1. Partula affinis
2. Partula clara
3. Partula compressa
4. Partula cytherea
5. Partula diminuta
6. Partula hyalina
7. Partula incrassa
   1. Partula incrassa exigua
   2. Partula incrassa incrassa
8. Partula jackieburchi
9. Partula laevigata
10. Partula nodosa
11. Partula otaheitana
12. Partula producta

Moorea

1. Partula aurantia
2. Partula mirabilis
3. Partula mooreana
4. Partula suturalis
   1. Partula suturalis strigosa
   2. Partula suturalis suturalis
   3. Partula suturalis vexillum
5. Partula taeniata
   1. Partula taeniata elongata
   2. Partula taeniata nucleola
   3. Partula taeniata simulans
   4. Partula taeniata taeniata
6. Partula tohiveana

Huahine

1. Partula arguta
2. Partula rosea
3. Partula varia

Raiatea

This section of the list is incomplete.

1. Partula clarkei
2. Partula dentifera
   1. Partula dentifera callifera
   2. Partula dentifera cedista
   3. Partula dentifera citrina
   4. Partula dentifera formosa
   5. Partula dentifera imperforata
3. Partula dolorosa
4. Partula faba
5. Partula garrettii
6. Partula hebe
   1. Partula hebe bella
7. Partula labrusca
8. Partula meyeri
9. Partula navigatoria
10. Partula tristis
11. Partula turgida

Tahaa

1. Partula bilineata
2. Partula eremita
3. Partula planilabrum
4. Partula sagitta
5. Partula umbilicata

Bora-Bora

1. Partula lutea