Gazelle : The Palestinian Biological Bulletin (ISSN 0178 – 6288) . Number 120, December 2014, pp. 30-53. | Page 4

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Prof. Dr. Sc. Norman Ali Bassam Ali Taher Khalaf-von Jaffa at a sign (Danger: Firing
Area Entrance Forbidden) in the Umm Dimna (Dimona) Area in Al-Naqab (Negev)
Desert, Occupied Palestine. Photo by the Researcher Daoud Al-Hali. 22.12.2014.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/50022881@N00/15998886597/

Introduction:
During a field trip to the Umm Dimna (Dimona) Area and to the North of Umm
Dimna (Between Beer Al-Sabea’ [Beersheba] and Umm Dimna) in Al-Naqab
(Negev) Desert, Occupied Palestine on Monday the 22nd December 2014,
accompanied by the Palestinian Researcher Daoud Al-Hali; I inspected the desert
area around Umm Dimna, and saw many white desert snail shells
(Sphincterochila boissieri Charpentier, 1847) which was scattered over a vast area
in the desert; many of these shells were covered by sand. Specimen snail shells
were collected, examined, measured and photographed.
Sphincterochila boissieri Charpentier, 1847 is a species of air-breathing land snail, a
terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusk in the family Sphincterochilidae. This
species lives in the Palestinian Al-Naqab Desert and the Sinai Desert (Egypt).
Sphincterochila boissieri is the type species of the genus Sphincterochila. The type
species was subsequently designated by Dr. Sc. Henry Augustus Pilsbry in 1895.

Gazelle : The Palestinian Biological Bulletin – Number 120 – December 2014