Pseudostreptaxis azpeitiae (Hidalgo, 1890)

Pall-Gergely, Barna, Schilthuizen, Menno, Oerstan, Aydin & Auffenberg, Kurt, 2019, A review of Aulacospira Moellendorff, 1890 and Pseudostreptaxis Moellendorff, 1890 in the Philippines (Gastropoda, Pupilloidea, Hypselostomatidae), ZooKeys 842, pp. 67-83 : 75-76

Pseudostreptaxis azpeitiae (Hidalgo, 1890) Figures 4A, 5A

Helix (Aulacospira) Azpeitiae Hidalgo, 1890: 120.

Aulacospira azpeitiae Möllendorff, 1898: 151.

Aulacospira (Pseudostreptaxis) azpeitiae Pilsbry, 1917 (1916-1918): 224, plate 38, figs 14, 17; Zilch 1984: 167-168.

Pseudostreptaxis azpeitiae Schileyko, 1998: 141, fig. 161.

Type locality.

"Isla Catanduanes".

Diagnosis.

Shell streptaxoid (penultimate whorl keeled, rapidly descending toward aperture and oblique to shell axis; body whorl rather rounded, descending more slowly); protoconch with very weak (barely visible) spiral striation, teleoconch with rough wrinkles and some spiral striation; aperture with five teeth (1 parietal, 2 palatal, 1 basal that can be absent sometimes, 1 columellar).

Types.

Not examined.

Additional material examined.

Philippinen: Busuanga (Calamianes), Bintuan, coll. Möllendorff, SMF 63882/9; Palawan Province, Calamianes Ids., Busuanga Id., leg. Beal-Maltbie Coll., UF 240009 (3 shells); Palawan Province, Calamianes Ids., Busuanga Id., Penon de Bintuan, leg. Univ. Alabama, T.H. Aldrich Coll, ex: WF Webb (THA-3082), UF 112316 (2 shells).

Distribution.

The type locality of this species is Catanduanes Island, which is situated on the eastern edge of the Philippines. However, all other material of this species was collected on Busuanga Island (Calamianes) in the western part of the Philippine Islands. Möllendorff (1898) gives only Busuanga as the distribution without comment. A hypselostomatid species occurring on two islands nearly 500 km apart is highly unlikely, given that all other members of this family are narrow-range endemics. Furthermore, the newly described congeneric, P. harli sp. n. (see below), also occurs geographically near the Calamianes. Therefore, we conclude that the occurrence of P. azpeitiae on Catanduanes is probably erroneous, and this species only occurs on Busuanga Island.