The phylum mollusca is very large consisting of thousands of species commonly known as shells. This numerically abundant and common biota of seas around India has not received any special treatment and no single comprehensive volume is available on marine molluscs of India. There are however, a few publications on the regional molluscs, especially of southeast coast of India that deal with only a few species. At the current level of interest in marine biodiversity there is a need for a ready reference book on mollusca. This prompted the author to undertake the task of preparing a volume on marine molluscs of India. Initially it was contemplated to deal with some common marine molluscs in a single volume. Since the utility of such a book will be very much limited, it was subsequently planned to include as many species as possible to help a serious worker in identifying his or her collections. But as the work progressed it was seen that it would not be possible to do justice for all classes of mollusca in a single volume. It was therefore decided to deal with two classes namely, Polyplacophora (Chitons) and Gastropoda (snails and slugs) in this volume. There are several species reported from India whose identity has to be confirmed to make the list up to date. In many cases it became a time consuming exercise, as there are no revisionary studies on Indian molluscs. The first two chapters provide general background information on the phylum mollusca such as classification, general organization, abundance, distribution, size and diversity. The values of molluscan diversity are explained bringing out their importance as objects of aesthetic, commercial, food and biomedical nature and role in marine biodeterioration. The references at the end of the chapter would provide additional information and help in further research. Thus the format of the book has been so devised to facilitate both a beginner and also a serious worker with some knowledge of mollusca. Chapter 3 deals with the systematic account of Polyplacophora and Gastropoda consisting of as many as 530 species belonging to 80 families. Under each class and family and some subfamilies important diagnostic characters are given. Each species is described giving salient shell characters and also illustrated so as to facilitate easy identification. Based on the collections available and also literature records, distribution of each species in India and elsewhere given. When a species is known to occur at many localities only the name of state is mentioned. Wherever possible additional information on the status, habitat etc. of the species are indicated. At the end of some families a few important references are cited. Although all the references are not available to the author, a selected bibliography is given containing references on marine molluscs of India and also revisionary works of Indo-Pacific molluscs which also reflect the past and current level of interest in molluscs of India. In accordance with the objective of this book to give a over-view of Indian sea shells, in addition to common molluscs, a few of the families, which are less known from India, such as Dialidae, Pyramidellidae, Turridae etc. are also dealt with. As far as possible names of several species reported from India are up-dated. Some species are reported herein for the first time from India.
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