Helicina guppyi

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Helicina guppyi
Helicina guppyi shell.png
An apertural view of the shell of Helicina guppyi. Note the presence of the operculum. The height of the shell is 5.99 mm.
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Mollusca
Class:
Gastropoda
(unranked):
clade Neritimorpha
clade Cycloneritimorpha
Superfamily:
Helicinoidea
Family:
Helicinidae
Genus:
Helicina
Species:
H. guppyi
Binomial name
Helicina guppyi
Pease, 1871[1]
Synonyms[2]
  • Helicina humilis Guppy, 1868
  • Helicina velutina Guppy, 1868

Helicina guppyi is a species of tropical land snail with an operculum, a terrestrial gastropod mollusk in the family Helicinidae.

Shell description[]

The species is smaller and lower-spired than the other Dominican Helicina species, and always has a dull brown colour, a paler aperture and a hairy periostracum; ‘covered with a velvety epidermis’, weakly keeled, with a columellar denticle.[2] Its size is 5-8.5 mm.[2][clarification needed]

Distribution[]

This species lives in Guadeloupe, Dominica and in Martinique.[2]

This is the most common of the helicinids in Dominica, but generally restricted to the leeward side of the island.[2]

Taxonomy[]

Robert John Lechmere Guppy (1868)[3] described two taxa from Dominica based on shell variation within this species; both names were preoccupied.[2] William Harper Pease (1871)[1] provided a substitute name in his treatment of Indo-Pacific species.[2] This species was placed in the subgenus by Horace Burrington Baker (1940)[4] based on Guppy’s (1868) comparison with the Puerto Rican (Menke, 1828), and also on Pilsbry’s (1892)[5] erroneous placement of this species with the Hispaniolan (L. Pfeiffer, 1857).[2] There is expected the forthcoming revision of the Lesser Antillean Helicinidae by (from Kiel, Germany).[2]

Ecology[]

This species is usually collected on the trunks of trees, where it is well camouflaged on tree bark, or among detritus and leaves on the ground.[2]

References[]

This article incorporates CC-BY-3.0 text from the reference.[2]

  1. ^ a b Pease W. H. (1871). "Catalogue of the land-shells inhabiting Polynesia, with remarks on their synonyms, distribution, and variation, and descriptions of new genera and species". Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 1871: 449-477.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Robinson D. G., Hovestadt A., Fields A. & Breure A. S. H. (July 2009). "The land Mollusca of Dominica (Lesser Antilles), with notes on some enigmatic or rare species". Zoologische Mededelingen 83 http://www.zoologischemededelingen.nl/83/nr03/a13 Archived 2011-10-07 at the Wayback Machine
  3. ^ Guppy R. J. L. (1868). "On the terrestrial mollusks of Dominica and Grenada, with an account of some new species from Trinidad". Annals and Magazine of Natural History (4)1: 429-442.
  4. ^ Baker H. B. (1940). ", new subgenus of Alcadia (?), type of A. (Emoda?) striata (Lamarck), from Puerto Rico". Nautilus 54: 71.
  5. ^ Pilsbry H. A. (1892). "On a collection of land Mollusca from the Island of Dominica, West Indies". Transactions of the Connecticut Academy of Science 8: 356-358.
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