Helix (Paryphanta) gilliesi E.A. Smith, 1880

Brook, Fred J. & Ablett, Jonathan D., 2019, Type material of land snails (Mollusca: Gastropoda) described from New Zealand by taxonomists in Europe and North America between 1830 and 1934, and the history of research on the New Zealand land snail fauna from 1824 to 1917, Zootaxa 4697 (1), pp. 1-117 : 77

Helix (Paryphanta) gilliesi E.A. Smith, 1880

Pl. 9, figs. F, G

E.A. Smith, 1880. Annals and Magazine of Natural History , Series 5, 6: 159 .

Type material: Lectotype (here designated), NHMUK 1880.7.2.3; paralectotype (1), 1876.3.6.19 (dry shell material).

Label details: ‘Whakamarama Range N.W. of Nelson, New Zealand’, T.L. Travers Esq.; ‘Near Nelson, New Zealand’, Justice Gillies.

Type locality: ‘ Whakamarama range of mountains, north-west of Nelson’ ( Smith 1880: 159) .

Remarks: The original description was based on two specimens that were sent to the British Museum separately by William Travers (NHMUK 1876.3.6.19) and Thomas Gillies (NHMUK 1880.7.2.3), respectively ( Smith 1879, 1880). In the first of a series of systematic reviews of New Zealand Rhytididae, Powell (1930: 44 , pl. 5, figs. 3, 4, pl. 6, fig. 1) inferred that the type material of Smith’s species came from the vicinity of Mt Burnett, northern part of the Wakamarama Range, and designated a plesiotype from that locality (AIM MA25343), which he described and illustrated to “definitely fix the characters of gilliesi ”. Powell’s (1930) interpretation has been followed by subsequent authors, including Powell (1946a: 112, 1979: 339, pl. 8, fig. 4, pl. 61, fig. 13 [who incorrectly referred to the plesiotype as a neotype, and stated that it “was taken from between 1900 and 2000 feet” on Mt Burnett]), Meads et al (1984: 286), and Walker (2003: 60, pl. 16). However, the two syntypes of Helix (Paryphanta) gilliesi E.A. Smith, 1880 have markedly different colour patterns, and neither matches the plesiotype designated by Powell (1940) or lies within the range of variation known from the population centred on Mt Burnett. The syntype collected by Gillies (illustrated in pl. 9, fig. F) closely matches shells from Mt Haidinger on the northern Wakamaramara Range, and which Walker (2003: 63, pl. 17) referred to as Powelliphanta gilliesi “Haidinger ”. This syntype is here designated as the lectotype of Helix (Paryphanta) gilliesi E.A. Smith, 1880 , and Mt Haidinger, Wakamarama Range, is treated as an emendment to the type locality inferred by Powell (1930). The specimen collected by Travers (illustrated in pl. 9, fig. G), which Smith (1879: 61) described as resembling the “husk of a chestnut, both as regards colour and pliancy”, differs from that of shells in all known populations of Powelliphanta gilliesi sensu lato (see illustrations by Walker 2003: pls. 16–26), and probably came from a local population that has not been rediscovered, or is now extinct.

Current Taxonomy: Listed as Powelliphanta gilliesi (E.A. Smith, 1880) by Climo (1978b: 294 —in part), Parkinson (1979: 15), Meads et al. (1984: 286), Walker (2003: 60) and Spencer et al. (2009: 218).

Distribution: New Zealand; northern South Island—the typical form is restricted to Mt Haidinger, northern Wakamarama Range, but populations of Powelliphanta gilliesi sensu lato are present elsewhere along the Wakamarama Range, on coastal ranges to the west and north, on the Gouland Downs, and to the east of the Aorere River, including the northern and eastern flanks of Parapara Peak ( Powell 1930; Meads et al. 1984; Walker 2003).