Noctepuna mayana, a rare tree snail from the World Heritage listed rainforests of the Wet Tropics region of northeast Queensland.

Molluscs

Dr John Stanisic
Mr Darryl Potter

Section

There are more than 1,000,000 specimens of molluscs in our collection. These are mainly sea shells, but also comprise octopus, squid and cuttlefish.

The section's chief research project is the land snails of the eastern Australian rainforests, vine thickets and limestone outcrops. This part of the collection contains more than 200,000 specimens. The study of molluscs is called malacology, from the Greek word malakos meaning soft.