Canariella pontelirae Hutterer, 1994

Ibáñez, Miguel, Siverio, Felipe, Alonso, María R. & Ponte-Lira, Carmen E., 2006, Two Canariella species (Gastropoda: Helicodea: Hygromiidae) endemic to the Northwest Tenerife (Canary Islands), Zootaxa 1258, pp. 33-45 : 36-37

Canariella pontelirae Hutterer, 1994

Type locality. Roadcut in the Urbanización Los Gigantes, Tenerife ( Fig. 1 , empty square; UTM coordinates: 28 RCS 1925, 150 m altitude).

Holotype. SMF (309931); leg. R. Hutterer, 22­02­1989.

Paratypes. 3 shells and 3 shell fragments leg. between 1988 and 1993 in the type locality. TFMC (1 paratype), AIT (1 paratype) and CHB (4 paratypes, 1 shell and 3 shell fragments).

This species was described by Hutterer (1994) as possibly being extinct, from a slope deposit exposed at that time by a fresh road cut in the mountain slopes south of the cliff named Acantilado de Los Gigantes (south of the Teno massif). The species was subsequently assigned to the subgenus Gara Alonso & Ibáñez, 2002 due to the resemblance in shape and ornamentation of the shell with that of the two other Gara species (Ibáñez et al. 2002), C. ronceroi Ponte­Lira, 2002 , from La Gomera, and C. bimbachensis Ibáñez & Alonso, 2002 , from El Hierro (Table 1).

Living specimens of C. pontelirae ( Fig. 4A ) were recently found on La Punta, a small, dry open area in northwest Teno, near the lighthouse. It has a xeric type of vegetation community named “cardonal­tabaibal” and located over fallen rock, with Euphorbia canariensis Linnaeus, 1753 , E. balsamifera Aiton, 1789 and E. lamarckii Sweet, 1818 as the predominant species, and also the aloctonous Opuntia dillenii (Ker Gawler) Hawort, 1819 , at about 50–300 m altitude. The snails were collected from between the roots of Asphodelus ramosus distalis Z. Díaz & Valdés, 1996 , Drimia maritima (Linnaeus) Stearn, 1978 , Hyparrhenia hirta (Linnaeus) Stapf in Prain, 1919 and Cenchrus ciliaris Linnaeus, 1771 .

Unfortunately, the genital systems of the six specimens dissected were seemingly not fully developed because the penis was undifferentiated from the epiphallus, and the epiphallar folds reached the atrium ( Fig. 6 A). The general shape of the genital system is similar to those of C. ronceroi , and C. bimbachensis , supporting its conchological assignment to the subgenus Gara , despite the uncertainty about its mature penial anatomy. The genital system of C. pontelirae differs from that of both species by two known character­states: firstly the slender flagellum is very long, about 6–8 times longer than that of the other two species, in which it is less than 1 mm, and secondly the presence of two vaginal glands rather than one.

Figures

FIGURE 1. Geographic distribution of Canariella pontelirae and C. giustii sp. nov.; symbols represent 1 x 1 km UTM squares.

FIGURE 6. Photographs of genital systems. A. Canariella pontelirae. B. C. giustii sp. nov. (both from La Punta, Teno massif, Tenerife). Abbreviations same as in Fig. 5.

FIGURE 4. A. Canariella pontelirae living specimen and shell, from La Punta (Teno massif, Tenerife). B. C. giustii sp. nov., holotype shell. C. C. hispidula shell, from Las Caletillas (Tenerife).