On the land snail Damochlora Iredale, 1938 and its cryptic sibling Nannochlora n. gen. (Stylommatophora: Camaenidae), each endemic to an island in the Western Australian Kimberley

Abstract

The camaenid genus Damochlora Iredale, 1938 endemic to the Western Australian Kimberley is poorly defined by shell characters only. Two out of three previously recognised species have recently been removed from this genus and placed in Setobaudinia Iredale, 1933 rendering the type species D. millepunctata (Smith, 1894) the only member of this genus. Based on the study of ethanol-preserved material from the type locality, Baudin Island, we revise the taxonomy of Damochlora, which is maintained as a distinct and monotypic genus. The examination of material from Cassini Island previously considered to be conspecific with D. millepunctata on account of possessing a nearly identical shell revealed that these snails represent a distinct species, for which the taxon name cassiniensis Smith, 1894 is available. This species is characterised by a profoundly different reproductive anatomy and therefore recognised as a distinct genus, for which the new name Nannochlora is being introduced.

http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:3189D63A-F183-4677-8EE6-293774EA8BA7

Keywords:

• Helicoidea
• mitochondrial
• morphology
• phylogeny
• taxonomy
• Western Australian Kimberley

Acknowledgements

Special thanks are due to Michael Shea (AM) for producing illustrations of genitalia of Nannochlora and to Sue Lindsay (AM) for conducting the SEM work. We thank the Editor and two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments on an earlier manuscript version.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Funding

This work has been made possible through financial support from the Australian Government (ABRS grants RF211–10 and RF 213–12 to FK).