The giant African snail, Achathia fulica Bowdich, is endemic to the coastal area of continental East Africa. The species occurs from southern Abyssinia and the southern half of Italian Somaliland, through Kenya and Tanganyika, to northern Portuguese East Africa. The snail’s ancestral homeland also probably includes certain of the small islands lying off the East African Coast, including Zanzibar and Pemba, where it is now found. Most probably, it was early transported by man to Madagascar. Its later introduction, usually deliberately, by man to Mauritius, Reunion, southern Asia, and the Pacific is a matter of historic record. The snail is now known from the Seychelles, Comores, India, Ceylon, Malaspia, Java, Sumatra, Borneo, Siam, Indo-China, China, Formosa, Japan, the Philippines, New Guinea, Micronesia, the Ryukyus, the Bonins, and Hawaii.
