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

believed to represent a species complex with additional unresolved taxonomic issues and hence ambiguities exist in their distribution records [36, DGH pers. obs.]. The family Urocy- clidae is represented in the analyses by the genera Kerkophorus, Microkerkus, Ptilototheca, Sela- todryas and Sheldonia. All species of Microkerkus (10), Ptilototheca (one) and Sheldonia (13) found in the study area were included, while Sheldonia hewitti was considered as a synonym of Fig 1. The study area showing the Operational Geographic Units (OGUs). The Maputaland-Pondoland-Albany (MPA) biodiversity hotspot is demarcated by the dashed line and the OGUs considered here as MPA units are indicated in dark grey, while the greater MPA region of vertebrate endemism [24] is in light grey. The OGUs are labelled as: ACB–Albany coastal belt, AWB–Amatola-Winterberg, CBV–central Bushveld, CFR–Cape Floristic Region except Knysna transition zone, DBP– Drakensberg plateau, DEE–Drakensberg-Eastern Cape escarpment, DKE–Drakensberg-KwaZulu-Natal escarpment, HUK–Highveld-upper Karoo, INH–Inhambane, KBV–Kalahari-Bushveld, KNY–Knysna transition zone (shared between the Cape Floristic Region and the greater MPA region), KUK–Kalahari-upper Karoo, LKR–lower Karoo, MLV–Mozambique lowveld, NBV–northern Bushveld, NCB–Natal coastal belt, NDH–northern dry Highveld, NGO–Ngoye, NMD–Natal Midlands, NME– northern Mpumalanga escarpment, NMH–northern mesic Highveld, NMO–northern mopane, NMP–northern Maputaland, NMV–northern Middleveld, NNT–northern

Natal, PND–Pondoland, SDH–southern dry Highveld, SKR–Succulent Karoo, SME–southern Mpumalanga escarpment, SMH–southern mesic Highveld, SMO–southern mopane, SMP–southern Maputaland, SMV–southern Middleveld, SNB–Sneeuberg, SPB–Soutpansberg, STR–southern Transkei coastal belt, TMD–Transkei Midlands, UKR–upper Karoo, WLB–Wolkberg, WTB–Waterberg. See text for further details. The MPA hotspot boundary is reprinted from Hoffman et al. [26] (public domain). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0248040.g001 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 4 / 26