UMUNTUNUNDI Prosper, Rwanda

Project title: Compiling the data on land snails from Kahuzi-Biega National Park in the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences and identification of urocyclid slugs and semi-slugs (Pulmonata, Gastropoda) from the Afromontane forests of the Albertine Rift.

Abstract: 

One part of my project will be a compilation of the data of the land snails from the Kahuzi-Biega National Park, Democratic Republic of Congo, and neighbouring areas available in the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences. This will supplement the data about the land snail fauna of that national park I gathered during a recent survey. Furthermore, I would like to learn to dissect slugs and semi-slugs and how to determine them by characters of the reproductive organs. Finally, I would like to compare shells of semi-slugs that I collected in Afromontane forests of the Albertine Rift and sorted into morpho-species with material in the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences and possibly with material from the Royal Museum for Central Africa in Tervuren to identify with described species.

Training location: Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences

Prosper working under the supervision of his tutor at the RBINS, Dr T. Backeljau