Attenborougharion, Hyman & Köhler, 2017

Hyman, Isabel T. & Köhler, Frank, 2017, Attenborougharion gen. nov. (Mollusca: Pulmonata: Helicarionidae): A Likely Case of Convergent Evolution in Southeastern Tasmania, Records of the Australian Museum 69 (2), pp. 65-72 : 69

Attenborougharion gen. nov.

Type species. Helicarion rubicundus Dartnall & Kershaw, 1978 .

Etymology. Named for Sir David Attenborough, Lifetime Patron of the Australian Museum, in recognition of his lifetime’s contribution to the fields of natural science and conservation. The Latin noun arion refers to a “kind of snail or slug”; masculine.

Diagnosis

External appearance. Large, shell ear-shaped, flattened, thin, golden, glossy, whorls rounded, base membraneous. Protoconch with radial wrinkles near suture; otherwise sculptured with very faint beading and indistinct to absent spiral grooves; teleoconch with very fine, indistinct spiral grooves and more prominent radial growth lines. Body colour green and burgundy. Mantle lobes and shell lappets of moderate size, none fused; shell lappets elongate, lacking pigmented warts; slime network prominent; caudal horn well-developed. Keel confined to very tip of tail; most of tail dorsally flattened. Pneumostome impressed, distinctly triangular.

Genitalia. Spermoviduct embedded in digestive gland. Talon and carrefour embedded in albumen gland. Spermoviduct slightly folded into a small curve but not folded downwards into foot (as in Helicarion ). Free oviduct folded alongside spermoviduct. Bursa copulatrix inserted on free oviduct; very long, nearly the length of the spermoviduct, bursa very slender, pointed. Vagina very short. Penis long, broad, with internal sculpture of longitudinal pilasters connected by irregular wavy transverse ridges. Penial tunica attached by muscle fibres to middle of epiphallus; epiphallus enters penis through simple pore; very small epiphallic caecum present; hook-shaped epiphallic flagellum with axial filament present, containing spiralling rows of internal cryptae adjacent to epiphallus; flagellum tip slender with no cryptae. Spermatophore a soft-walled capsule with hard tail-pipe; branching spines present in spiralling pattern along tail-pipe.