Helix kappa Pfeiffer, 1853

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 : 48-49

Helix kappa Pfeiffer, 1853

Pl. 3, fig. G

Pfeiffer, 1853, Monographia heliceorum viventium, 3: 154.

Type material: Syntypes (2), NHMUK 20140670 (dry shell material); ex Museum Cuming (Acc. no. 1829) .

Label details: ‘N. Zealand’.

Type locality: ‘Nova Seelandia’ (Pfeiffer 1853: 154, 1854a: 58).

Previous illustrations of type material: Reeve (1852 [in 1851–1854]: pl. 132, fig. 811—as Helix collyrula ); Pfeiffer (1853 [in 1852–1860]: pl. 154, figs. 25–28); Tryon (1886 [from Reeve 1852]: pl. 62, fig. 56—as Charopa collyrula ); Tryon (1886 [from Pfeiffer 1853]: pl. 63, fig. 60–62—as Charopa kappa ).

Remarks: Helix collyrula Reeve, 1852 and H. kappa Pfeiffer, 1853 are based on the same type material, which H. Cuming had obtained from the Australian-based naturalist Frederick Strange. Pfeiffer evidently intended to publish the original description of this species in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London issue for 1851 (see Reeve 1852 [in 1851–1854]: species 811; Pfeiffer 1853a: 154, 1854 [in 1852–1860]: 455), but publication was delayed until 1854 ( Pfeiffer 1854a: 58), and was pre-empted by Reeve 1852 [in 1851–1854]). Helix collyrula Reeve, 1852 and H. kappa Pfeiffer, 1853 were previously regarded as junior synonyms of Helix portia Gray, 1850 ( Hutton 1884b: 203; Tryon 1886: 213) and the earlier-named Helix ziczac Gould, 1846 (e.g., Hedley & Suter 1893: 635; Suter 1913b: 632; Powell 1979: 318), but re-examination of the type material indicates that it differs from those two species, and instead is conspecific with Phenacohelix (Neophenacohelix) giveni Cumber, 1961 . The last-mentioned name is designated herein as the nomen protectum for this taxon (see entry for collyrula above).

Taxonomy: Treated here as a subjective junior synonym of Phenacohelix (Neophenacohelix) giveni Cumber, 1961 N. syn.