Helix nematophora 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 : 52-53

Helix nematophora Pfeiffer, 1855

Pl. 16, fig. A

Pfeiffer, 1855a. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, pt. 22: 49.

Type material: Syntype (1), NHMUK 1962713 (dry shell material); ex Museum Cuming (Acc. no. 1829) .

Label details: ‘ nematophora Pfr., Solomons Islands’ in Pfeiffer’s handwriting.

Type locality: ‘Salomon’s Islands’ ( Pfeiffer 1855a).

Previous illustrations of type material: Reeve (1854 [in 1851–1854]): pl. 190, figs. 1333a, b; Tryon (1886 [from Reeve 1854]: pl. 38, fig. 46); Delsaerdt (2006 [from Reeve 1854]: 117, text fig.).

Remarks: The original description was based on one or more specimens in the Cuming collection. Helix nematophora Reeve, 1854 and H. nematophora Pfeiffer, 1855 are based on the same type material. Pfeiffer’s original description in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London issue for 1854 was not published until January 1855 ( Pfeiffer 1855a: 49 —see Sclater & Waterhouse 1893 for date of publication), and was pre-empted by Reeve’s description published in August 1854. Authorship previously attributed to Pfeiffer (e.g., Pfeiffer 1859: 15; Cox 1868b: 42; Pfeiffer 1868a: 55; Pfeiffer 1876: 68; Pfeiffer & Clessin 1881: 36; Tryon 1886: 114, 245; Clapp 1923: 355; Delsaerdt 2006: 117), but Reeve (1854) has priority.

Taxonomy: Helix nematophora Pfeiffer, 1855 is a junior primary homonym and an objective junior synonym of Allodiscus nematophora (Reeve, 1854) N. syn.