Helix gamma 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 : 44

Helix gamma Pfeiffer, 1853

Pl. 3, fig. E

Pfeiffer, 1853. Monographia heliceorum viventium, 3: 100.

Type material: Syntypes (6), NHMUK 1996017 (dry shell material); ex Museum Cuming (Acc. no. 1829) .

Label details: ‘ H. gamma Pfr N. Zealand’—in Pfeiffer’s handwriting.

Type locality: ‘Nova Seelandia’ ( Pfeiffer 1853a: 100; 1854a: 57).

Previous illustrations of type material: Reeve (1852 [in 1851–1854]: pl. 133 fig. 821—as Helix buccinella ).

Remarks: Helix buccinella Reeve, 1852 and H. gamma 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 821; Pfeiffer 1853a: 100), but publication was delayed until 1854 ( Pfeiffer 1854a: 57), and was pre-empted by Reeve (1852 [in 1851–1854]) [note that the publication date of ‘ October 1851 ’ listed for plate 133 of Reeve (1851 –1854) is presumed to be an error, as the immediately preceding and following plates were dated ‘ October 1852 ’ (see Petit 2007: table 3)].

Current Taxonomy: Treated as a junior synonym of Helix buccinella Reeve, 1852 by Martens (1873: 10), Hutton (1884b:192), Hedley & Suter (1893: 654), Suter (1894d: 262, 1913b: 714), Climo (1969a: 208) and Powell (1979: 307).