New species of land snail discovered in Son Doong Cave

Scientists Do Duc Sang and Nguyen Thanh Son from the Faculty of Biology, University of Science - VNU, in collaboration with a number of domestic scientists, have just announced a new species of land snail to science.

The new snail species was scientifically named Calybium plicatus Hoang et al., 2025, based on the characteristic of having ridges appearing on the top edge of the shell mouth (in Latin: plicatus means ridge, fold). The specimen was discovered at the location of Sinkhole 1 of Son Doong Cave, in Phong Nha - Ke Bang National Park, Quang Binh Province.

Standard specimen image of Calybium plicatus species. Photo: Nguyen Thanh Son.

This is the second species of the genus Calybium Morlet, 1892 (Gastropoda: Helicinidae) discovered in the world , and is also the first time this genus of land snail is recorded for the fauna of Vietnam.

Dr. Do Duc Sang is analyzing snail specimens at the Department of Applied Zoology, Faculty of Biology, University of Science - Vietnam National University, Hanoi. Photo: Nguyen Thanh Son.

The discovery of this new species of land snail further confirms that Vietnam is a country with high biodiversity in the world, especially in the forest ecosystem on limestone mountains and caves.

The new snail species was also published by a group of Vietnamese scientists in the journal Ruthenica, Russian Malacological Journal, January 2025.