Madagascar's land mollusks--remarkable of their taxonomic breadth, endemism, ancient affinities, often gigantic size, and extensive conchological radiations--are poorly understood in all respects, are inadequately represented in the museums of the world, and are going extinct at an alarming rate. An expedition in 1990 revealed that the giant-shelled taxa are overdescribed and contain polytypic species of astounding morphological diversity, and that the minute-to-small-sized taxa contain virtually unexplored major radiations consisting of hundreds to thousands of undescribed species. Total diversity is predicted to be three to ten times the currently recognized 378 species. Three expeditions will collect a total of 1,260 sites in regions of known or predicted high diversity, emphasizing uncollected, unprotected areas undergoing deforestation; year-long sampling at a rain-forest site will provide unprecedented data on seasonal and micro-geographic patterns of diversity. The products of this research will be (a) an estimated 9,600 computer-cataloged museum lots of shells and ethanol-preserved specimens, and 2,520 frozen tissue samples, all advertised in a published catalog; (b) discovery of a predicted 354 new species; and (c) increased Malagasy awareness of the island's molluscan resources via school lectures, reference collections, and species-identification catalogs.
