Helix taranaki Pfeiffer, 1846

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 : 90

Helix taranaki Pfeiffer, 1846

Pl. 15, fig. D

Pfeiffer, 1846. Symbolae ad Historiam Heliceorum, 3: 79.

Type material: Probably formerly in the British Museum, but not found in NHMUK collections in 2018, and whereabouts unknown .

Type locality: Possession Is., Torres Strait ( Iredale 1938: 110; Smith 1992: 164; after Reeve 1852 [in 1851– 1854]: species 443); incorrectly stated as ‘Nova Seeland’ by Pfeiffer (1846: 79).

Previous illustrations of type material: Reeve (1852 [in 1851–1854]: pl. 83, fig. 443), Pfeiffer (1849 [in 1849–1853]: pl. 75, figs. 4, 5 [reproduced here in pl. 15, fig. D]).

Remarks: Authorship of this species was formerly incorrectly attributed to Gray (e.g., Pfeiffer 1846: 79, 1848: 378; Reeve 1852 [in 1851–1854]: species 443; Cox 1868a: 61, 1868b: 59; Hector 1873: 19; Martens 1873: 9; Hutton 1884b: 206; Suter 1892c: 282), apparently based on a description and illustrations in an ‘Unpublished list of New Zealand shells’ by Gray. Recorded from New Zealand and Torres Strait islands (northern Australia) by Pfeiffer (1848: 378), Reeve (1852 [in 1851–1854]: species 443), Hector (1873: 20) and Hutton (1884b: 206), but subsequently recognised as being restricted to northern Cape York Peninsula and Torres Strait Islands (e.g., Iredale 1938: 110; Solem 1979: 61; Smith 1992: 164; Stanisic et al. 2010: 448 —all as Torresitrachia torresiana Hombron & Jacquinot, 1841 ), with no valid records from New Zealand (see Martens 1873: 9; Hutton 1884b: 188; Suter 1892c: 282; Hedley & Suter 1893: 616).

Current Taxonomy: Treated as a junior synonym of Helyx torresiana Hombron & Jacquinot, 1841 [= Torresitrachia torresiana ( Hombron & Jacquinot, 1841) ] by Iredale (1938: 110), Solem (1979: 61) and Smith (1992: 164).