A photograph of two, minute, land snails taken in Gibraltar by Dr Alex Menez recently made the cover of the international magazine Mollusc World (Issue 68 of July 2025). What was so important to take this photograph, and the headline “Acicula norrisi from Gibraltar”, to this prestigious magazine’s cover?
For decades Dr Alex Menez, scientist at the Gibraltar National Museum has searched for one of Gibraltar’s smallest and rarest land molluscs, a species known by its scientific name - Acicula norrisi. The malacologist John Ponsonby first found asingle, empty, shell of this snail in the early 1880s but this was not identified at the time and its significance was not realised. In 1975, malacologist Adrian Norris found several empty shells in Gibraltar, which remained unnamed until they were described in 1977 as a new species to science. The new species, was named after Norris, the type locality being Gibraltar. It became a protected species under the original Nature Protection Act in 1991, despite no live specimens having been yet found.
Dr Menez, who is also an honorary researcher at the University of Gibraltar, had searched for this snail for many years but had only found more empty shells of this species, raising the inevitable question and concern that it might be extinct. Success finally came in March this year with the good news that he found several live snails of this extremely rare species. He took photographs of the tiny - 3mm-long - animals alive. The photographs are the very first tangible evidence of living Acicula norrisi. This protected species, now known to be still living on the Rock, is an example of the value of long-term systematic fieldwork and research, as carried out over the years by Dr Menez, in understanding our fauna and flora and how to best protect and conserve species and habitats. At a time when many species have been lost from the Rock, this is a wonderful success story.
Minister for Environment Prof John Cortes, who together with Prof Clive Finlayson of the Gibraltar National Museum were behind the introduction of the Nature Protection Act in 1991, commented: “This discovery by Alex Menez is an incredible story, rightly given prominence in a much-respected international journal. It once again highlights the importance of the work of the National Museum, GONHS, and others, in researching and protecting Gibraltar’s rich, and internationally important biodiversity”.
