Polyplacophora, Gray, 1821

Dell’Angelo, Bruno, Gori, Sandro, Baschieri, Leonardo & Bonfitto, Antonio, 2010, Chitons (Mollusca, Polyplacophora) from the Maldive islands, Zootaxa 2673 (1), pp. 1-38 : 5

Polyplacophora of Maldive —historical background

Knowledge of the Recent shallow-water Polyplacophora fauna of the Maldive Islands began with the contribution of E.A. Smith (1903) on Maldive and Laccadive Archipelagoes molluscs. He reported eight species, three of them new: Ischnochiton hululensis (now Tegulaplax hululensis ), Ischnochiton feliduensis , and Ischnochiton maldivensis (now Rhyssoplax maldivensis ). Melvill (1909 /10) published an important contribution on the molluscs of the islands of the Indian Ocean, but listed only two species from the Maldive Islands, which were already reported by E.A. Smith ( Table 2). To our knowledge there is no additional literature concerning Maldive chitons. Recent books on marine life of the Maldive Islands (e.g. Coleman, 2000) only generally mention Polyplacophora, without any list of species.

Our contribution must be considered as a further step in the assessment of shallow-water Polyplacophora from the Maldive Islands, and introduces some novel information on taxonomy and biogeography of this class as well as previously unavailable illustrations of shell features of several taxa.