Hydrocena (Omphalotropis) vestita Pfeiffer, 1855

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 : 84

Hydrocena (Omphalotropis) vestita Pfeiffer, 1855

Pl. 10, fig. A

Pfeiffer, 1855. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, 23: 106.

Type material: Syntypes (4), NHMUK 20160068 (dry shell material); ex Museum Cuming (Acc. no. 1829) .

Label details: ‘ New Zealand, Mus. Cuming’.

Type locality: Vanuatu (below); incorrectly stated as ‘ New Zealand’ by Pfeiffer (1855: 106) .

Remarks: There are no previous illustrations of the type material of Hydrocena (Omphalotropis) vestita Pfeiffer. It was described from specimens in the Cuming collection that were reportedly from New Zealand, and was listed by subsequent authors as being from that country (e.g., Pfeiffer 1858: 166; Cox 1868b: 61; Pease 1869: 139; Hector 1873: 25; Hutton 1880: 40, 1884b: 211; Hedley & Suter 1893: 622; Suter 1894d: 225, 1904a: 78; Kobelt & Möllendorff 1897: 71; Kobelt 1906: 84). Suter (1913b: 198) noted that it “has never been found again, and it is doubtful whether the type was really found in New Zealand ”. During the present study, Hiroshi Fukuda (pers. comm. 2016) pointed out that Hydrocena (Omphalotropis) vestita Pfeiffer, 1855 is a subjective senior synonym of Omphalotropis conella Sykes, 1902 . A syntype of the latter (NHMUK 1902.12.1.260) is illustrated in pl. 10, fig. B. The type locality of O. conella is ‘Port Fila, Efate’ in the New Hebrides [= Port Vila, Vanuatu] ( Sykes 1902: 200), and Pfeiffer’s species is here assumed to be from Vanuatu as well. Solem (1959) included O. conella , along with two other Vanuatuan species, in section Lyrotropis Solem, 1959, based on shell, operculum and radular characters. He noted (Solem: 1959: 201–202) that these three species formed a ‘very isolated group’ that differed markedly from other western Pacific Omphalotropis taxa. Fukuda & Ponder (2003: 2026) listed Lyrotropis as a genus-level taxon.

Taxonomy: Treated here as Lyrotropis vestita (Pfeiffer, 1855) n. comb.

Distribution: Vanuatu; Efate, Espiritu Santo and Maewo ( Solem, 1959: 203, 1962: 241).