Helix multilimbata Hombron & Jacquinot, 1847

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 : 51-52

Helix multilimbata Hombron & Jacquinot, 1847

Pl. 14, fig. D

Hombron & Jacquinot, (1842–1854) 1847. Atlas d’Histoire Naturelle Zoologie, 23ème Livraison: pl. 6, figs. 5–8. [published 23 November 1847, according to Clark & Crosnier (2000: 435)].

Type material: Probably formerly in MNHN but lost or destroyed (see below) .

Type locality: ‘ Nelle Zélande’ (Hombron & Jacquinot 1847).

Previous illustrations of type material: Hombron & Jacquinot (1847 [in 1842–1854]: pl. 6, figs. 5–8).

Remarks: Authorship of Helix multilimbata is based on the illustrations with the name, and the locality, by Hombron & Jacquinot (1847 [in 1842–1854]: pl. 6, figs. 5–8). The type material was collected in New Zealand in 1840, during Dumont D’Urville’s South Pole expedition. The same species had earlier been described under another name, Vitrina zebra , by Le Guillou (1842), from material collected during the same expedition, purportedly at Auckland Islands. The shell dimensions of V. zebra and H. multilimbata given by Le Guillou (1842) and Hombron & Jacquinot (1847), respectively, are very similar, and the descriptions of these two taxa were quite likely based on the same material. It was presumably part of the official expedition collection sent to MNHN in 1841, or donated to that museum by Le Guillou (see Clark & Crosnier 2000: 419, 423), but was evidently subsequently lost or destroyed. A description of H. multilimbata was given by Rousseau (1854: 16), who noted: «Cette coquille, que nous ne connaissons que par la figure donnée par MM. Hombron et Jacquinot.» As noted in the entry for zebrina (below), the Auckland Islands record of Le Guillou (1842) was probably an error. Helix multilimbata is conspecific with Vitrina zebra Guillou, 1842 , H. phlogophora Pfeiffer, 1850 and H. flammigera Pfeiffer, 1854 (e.g., Martens, 1873: 12; Hutton, 1884b: 198; Hedley & Suter, 1893: 643; Suter, 1913b: 680; Powell, 1979: 314).

Current Taxonomy: Treated as a junior synonym of Vitrina zebra Le Guillou, 1842 by Hutton (1884b: 198) and Powell (1979: 314).