Land snail biogeography and endemism in south-eastern Africa: Implications for the Maputaland-Pondoland-Albany biodiversity hotspot

A greater Maputaland-Pondoland-Albany region of land snail endemism The COEs as well as the patterns of land snail endemism confirm the hotspot status of MPA for malacofauna (see Figs 4–7). Furthermore, the MPA-Knysna province (Fig 2) is recognized as a numerically derived zoogeographical entity for land snails. Nevertheless, the land snail endemism as indicated by the COEs (Fig 4) and high levels of weighted endemism (Fig 7), extends beyond this province towards the south-eastern escarpment (Drakensberg-KwaZulu- Natal escarpment, Drakensberg plateau, and Sneeuberg OGUs) and the eastern escarpment (northern & southern Mpumalanga escarpment, Wolkberg and Soutpansberg OGUs), Fig 4. Centres of endemism (COEs) and centres of narrow endemism (CONEs) for land snails of south-eastern Africa derived from the phenetic cluster dendrogram (Fig 2A). Centres are shaded on a grey scale based on number of endemics, given below for each in brackets (darker shades denote high endemism). See Table 3 for lists of endemic species. (a) COEs: A–Sky islands (4), B–Extended Maputaland (4), C–Natal (6), D— Extended Pondoland (7), and E—Albany-Knysna (7). (b) CONEs: a—Soutpansberg (2), b—Wolkberg (2), c—Northern Middleveld (2), d—Natal coastal belt-Ngoye (3), e—Natal Midlands, and f—Knysna (3). The whole (blue) line indicates the Maputaland-Pondoland-Albany (MPA) hotspot boundary while the dashed (black) line delimits the greater MPA region of land snail endemism. COEs and CONEs are spatially compared with (c)

South African biomes and (d) the protected area network of South Africa (SA); protected areas in Lesotho (L), Swaziland (S) and Mozambique (M) are not included. The MPA hotspot boundary, biomes and protected areas of SA are reprinted from Hoffman et al. [26], Open Knowledge Foundation [67] and the Department of Environmental Affairs, Forestry and Fisheries [68] (public domain), respectively. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0248040.g004 PLOS ONE Land snail endemism in the Maputaland-Pondoland-Albany biodiversity hotspot PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0248040 March 4, 2021 12 / 26