Rissoina ponderi n. sp. (Caenogastropoda: Rissoinidae) a new endemic species from New South Wales and a comparison with the related species Rissoina elegantula Angas, 1880

ABSTRACT

A new species Rissoina ponderi n. sp., so far only collected from the coast of New South Wales, is described and contrasted with its morphologically most similar species R. elegantula Angas, 1880. The species differ in larval development and in geographical distribution pattern. The hypotheses of sister species and poecilogony are discussed.

http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:CEBAE295-444C-4383-99B6-07120BEC729D

KEYWORDS:

• Bassian isthmus
• geographical distribution
• larval development
• poecilogony
• sister species

Acknowledgements

I am grateful to Ms. Kathy Way (NHMUK) for the loan of the holotype of Rissoina elegantula and to the following former staff members of the Australian Museum, Sydney for providing the rissoinid material for examination: Dr. W.F. Ponder, Ian Loch and P. Colman. Special thanks to Prof. Dr. Thierry Backeljau (Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences) for critically reviewing the manuscript; his comments, advice and corrections have substantially improved this paper. I appreciate the valuable comments of Dr Winston Ponder and Dr Don Colgan on the draft.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).