Rupestrella philippii ( Cantraine, 1840 )

Kokshoorn, Bas & Gittenberger, Edmund, 2010, Chondrinidae taxonomy revisited: New synonymies, new taxa, and a checklist of species and subspecies (Mollusca: Gastropoda: Pulmonata) 2539, Zootaxa 2539 (1), pp. 1-62 : 40-41

Rupestrella philippii ( Cantraine, 1840)

Pupa philippii Cantraine, 1840: 140 . Lectotype (design. nov. [see notes]): RMNH 111874 (pl. 13 fig. A).

Type locality: Italy, Sardinia and Sicily (but see notes) .

Diagnosis.—Shell moderately slender fusiform; aperture usually with an angularis.

Notes.—The species generally known as Rupestrella philippii ( Cantraine, 1840) is a common inhabitant of limestone rockfaces in the central and eastern Mediterranean area, with the exception of northern Africa (Pilsbry 1918: 341; Schütt, 2005: 80, 81). Throughout its range R. philippi may occur together with R. rhodia ( Roth, 1839) . The two species can be distinguished by shell shape and apertural denticles. In R. philippii the shell is rather fusiform, i.e. with slightly convex sides in profile, whereas R. rhodia is very well characterized by a more slender, always regularly conical shell shape. The apertural teeth are also different. Both species share a columellaris, a parietalis, and two palatales, but with few exceptions there is an additional columellar tooth in R. rhodia and an angularis only in R. philippii .While describing the species now called R. philippii, Cantraine (1840: 140) mentioned the five apertural teeth that are most typical for R. rhodia . However, his references to the three shells figured by Philippi (1836: pl. 8 fig. 18) as Bulimus rupestris and by Rossmässler (1839: pl. 49 figs 637, 638) as Pupa rupestris and P. occulta , respectively, make clear that he did not judge the variability of his Pupa philippii in a modern way. All three shells are regularly conical but only in ‘ P. occulta ’ the aperture is illustrated with teeth, although only three, viz. a single columellaris, only one palatalis and a parietalis. Rupestrella rupestris ( Philippi, 1836) and R. occulta ( Rossmässler, 1839) are separate species according to Beckmann (2002: 58, 68).

There is no certain Cantraine material of Rupestrella philippii in the collection of the Koninklijk Belgisch Instituut voor Natuurwetenschappen in Brussels (Sablon in litt., 11.02.2008). There are samples collected by Cantraine in the National Museum of Natural History Naturalis, Leiden, but unfortunately, allegedly conspecific specimens collected by Cantraine at different localities have once in the past been put together and identified anew, without any trace left to the names originally given by Cantraine himself. Apparently the shells have once been glued on something and were removed afterwards. In a sample that is now labelled as Pupa granum , a name not used for any species listed by Cantraine (1840), four shells of modern R. philippii are united with six shells of R. rhodia . Their provenance is indicated as Livorno and Zara (= Zadar, Dalmatia, Croatia). Cantraine (1840: 140) reported Pupa philippii from “en Dalmatie .. Sicile et en Sardaigne”.

On the basis of all data we accept the ten specimens as syntypes and select a shell ( RMNH 111874; pl. 13, fig. A) as lectotype of Rupestrella philippii , to stabilize the use of that name. The lectotype is a rather unusual shell without an angularis, corresponding in that character with Cantraine’s original description but still very clearly a R. philippii as known in the modern literature. Our interpretation is supported by a sample with two specimens collected by Cantraine and accompanied by two old labels with different names, viz. Pupa granum and Pupa sardoa. The locality ‘Livorno’ is written on the label with P. granum . Pupa sardoa was described by Cantraine (1840: 142) from Sardinia, but he lived for some time in Livorno after he had visited the island. As in the former case, this may have caused confusion. We accept the shells as syntypes of Pupa sardoa Cantraine, 1840, which is a junior synonym of Granopupa granum ( Draparnaud, 1801) , as has been suggested before (Pilsbry 1918: 339).

Rupestrella philippii is known from Italy, the Balkans, and Turkey (Pilsbry 1918: 341). Its occurrence in Libya is shown here with figure 9b . Remarkable is the record from the province of Tripolitania, N of Tarhuna, which is the first record west of the Gulf of Sidra (Beckmann 1977: 32). The species has also been reported from Malta ( Giusti et al. 1995: 222, figs 177–182). According to material in RMNH, Rupestrella moraguesi ( Kobelt, 1886) , which has often been reported as endemic for the Balearic island of Mallorca ( Gasull 1966: 93), should be considered a junior synonym of R. philippii . This makes Mallorca the westernmost known record for R. philippii .

Figures

FIGURE 9. Distribution of Rupestrella species in Spain and N-Africa. A, Type localities of the taxa recognized by Pilsbry (1918) with the approximate distribution of R. dupotetii in gray; B, Localities of R. philippii in N-Africa based on material in the collection of the RMNH.