Helicarionidae (Gastropoda: Heterobranchia: Stylommatophora) of Lord Howe Island

ABSTRACT

The Helicarionidae of Lord Howe Island are reviewed and described. There are nine species and subspecies of Helicarionidae in four genera (Epiglypta, Gudeoconcha, Howerion and Parmellops), with all taxa endemic to the island. Most species that are confined to the highland parts of the island appear to have declined in recent years relative to their lowland counterparts. One of these species is probably extinct (Epiglypta howeinsulae) and another (Gudeoconcha sophiae magnifica) has recently been listed as critically endangered. Gudeoconcha sophiae conica, a subspecies confined to the small Blackburn Island, is also extinct. One new species (Parmellops perspicuus) and one new subspecies (Gudeoconcha sophiae intermedia) are described.

http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:DDAEC434-6DAF-48F9-A02E-C207A24EEE5B

KEYWORDS:

• Helicarionoidea
• taxonomy
• systematics
• morphology
• extinct species
• Pulmonata
• radula
• anatomy

Acknowledgements

This work is based on part of a PhD project supervised by one of us (WFP) and Lars Jermiin. A large amount of land snail material from the Australian Museum was examined during the research underlying this paper, and thanks are due to Ian Loch and Mandy Reid, Collection Managers of the Malacology Department, for allowing us to have access to the specimens. We would also like to thank other Australian Museum members of staff for their assistance, particularly Alison Miller and Janet Waterhouse (Malacology) and Sue Lindsay (Microscopy and Microanalysis Unit). Most of the type specimens of species included in this paper were photographed by Holly Barlow, Des Beechey, Mark Allen and Winston Ponder. The copyright of all photographs of shells and live animals belongs to the Australian Museum unless otherwise stated. We would also like to thank John Stanisic and Frank Köhler for their helpful and constructive reviews of this manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The research underlying this paper was funded by grants from the Australian Federation of University Women, the Australian Museum, the Malacological Society of Australasia, the Australian Biological Resources Study, the Linnean Society of New South Wales, the Western Society of Malacologists, the Santa Barbara Malacological Society, the Southwest Shell Club, the San Diego Shell Club, the Northern California Malacological Club and the University of Sydney Postgraduate Research Support Scheme.