Malacology
Malacology is the scientific study of mollusks — animals like snails, clams, and other shelled and soft-bodied invertebrates. At Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum, this includes both land and marine mollusks from Hawaiʻi and the Pacific.
This Collection:
6+ Million Specimens
Undescribed Species: 300+ Specimens
Endemic Species:
479 Specimens
Active Captive Rearing Program
Playlist
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Why does it matter?
Mollusks are key parts of ecosystems and can signal environmental change. Native Hawaiian snails, in particular, are culturally and biologically important, but many are threatened by invasive species and habitat loss. Studying them helps with conservation, biosecurity, and biodiversity understanding.
What does the department look after?
What do malacologists do?
PILSBRy
Bishop Museum malacology online database is now incorporated into the PILSBRy (Pacific Island Land Snail Biodiversity Repository) portal supported by NSF.
Outreach & Resources
Quick Guides
Snailblazers Card Game
Play the card game! Think you can handle the heat of Snail Blazers TCG? Play against friends using an army of Hawaiian snails and their special abilities.
BIORETS
Help Save Our Snails!
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.
Publications
Hayes, Kenneth & Christensen, Carl & Kim, Jaynee & Maruno, Taylor & Kishimoto, Christopher & Matsunaga, Janis & Robinson, David & Yeung, Norine. (2023). New records of Otala lactea (Müller, 1774) and Zachrysia provisoria (Pfeiffer, 1858) in Hawaii: using collaborative networks to combat invasive sleeper populations. BioInvasions Records. 12. 513-534.
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.