Malacology
Bishop Museum’s malacology collection, comprising over 6 million specimens from across the Pacific and beyond, is one of the world’s most significant resources for the study and preservation of molluscan biodiversity, including many rare, extinct, and undescribed species.
Main Contact: Norine Yeung
Data
Bishop Museum malacology online database is now incorporated into the PILSBRy (Pacific Island Land Snail Biodiversity Repository) portal supported by NSF. Please search by collections and select “Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum”. This online database currently provides access to all digitized terrestrial, freshwater and marine specimen records.
Discover
To visit our collections, please complete the Natural Sciences Collection Access & Use Request Form; for loans or images, contact Dr. Norine W. Yeung. We document over 750 Hawaiian land snail species—many facing 65 – 95% extinction risk—to guide conservation. We survey invasive molluscs with USDA and state partners, and an online ID guide is coming soon.
Donate
Donate to the Hawaiian Land Snail Conservation Fund to help save Hawaii’s native snails. Of 750+ species, all but three being endemic to Hawaii, only ~300 remain based on our long-term biodiversity conservation research program. Without action, ~100 more could vanish in the next decade. Your support funds biodiversity surveys, student training, public outreach, and the care of 25+ highly endangered species in our protective-rearing program.
The Bishop Museum has one of the most comprehensive collection of Pacific island land snails in the world. The approximately 25,000 islands of the Pacific Ocean harbor more than 6,000 land snail species, most of which are only found on a single island or archipelago. Unfortunately, molluscs, particularly Pacific island land snails, have the highest recorded extinction rate of any major animal taxonomic group, making the Museum’s collection all the more important. This collection (6+ million specimens) includes representatives of many extinct, endangered, and threatened species and more than 300 undescribed species.
Molluscs represent the second most diverse group of animals among recognized species in the world. This incredibly diverse group of animals include cephalopoda (octopus, squid, cuttlefish), bivalvia (clams, oysters, geoducks), scaphopoda (tusk shells), polyplacophora (chitons), and gastropoda (snails, nudibranchs, sea hares), many of which can be found in the Bishop Museum Malacology Collection.
The first mollusc shells acquisition of the Bishop Museum was the Andrew Garrett Collection, purchased in 1894, and contains marine, land, and freshwater specimens. The subsequent history of the Malacology Collection is largely a history of numerous expeditions and field surveys throughout the Pacific and Indo-West Pacific Ocean, and of the acquisition of more than 30 major private collections, containing predominantly Pacific material. Many of these expeditions were led by Dr. Charles Montague Cooke, Jr., the first curator of the collection that established the department in 1907.
Most notable in the marine collection are the acquisitions between 1948 and 1963 of the D. D. Thaanum and D. B. Langford Collection, consisting of approximately 160,000 specimens from throughout the Pacific. In 2002, Bishop Museum acquired C. M. Burgess’s extensive collection of worldwide cowries and Dr. E. A. Kay gifted her extraordinary collection of molluscs along with her notes, photos, and literature collection to Bishop Museum in 2009.
Wallace M. Meyer Iii, Lily M. Evans, Connor J. K. Kalahiki, John Slapcinsky, Tricia C. Goulding, David Gwyn Robinson, D. Pomaika'i Kaniaupo-Crozier, Jaynee Kim, Kenneth A Hayes, Norine W Yeung, Cristopher Jiménez Orozco
Carl C. Christensen, Robert H Cowie, Norine W Yeung, Kenneth A Hayes
Be a Part of Our Story
Celebrate the extraordinary history, culture, and environment of Hawaiʻi and the Pacific with a gift to Bishop Museum. As a partner in the Museum’s work, you can help to sustain vital collections, research, and knowledge, and inspire exploration and discovery with a tax-deductible donation.
