Helix biconcava Reeve, 1852

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 : 29-30

Helix biconcava Reeve, 1852

Pl. 2, fig. D

Reeve, (1851–1854) 1852. Conchologia iconica, 7: species 810, pl. 132, fig. 810. Type material: Syntypes (3), NHMUK 20040907 (dry shell material); ex. Mus. Cuming (Acc. no. 1829).

Label details: ‘biconcava P.’ in Pfeiffer’s handwriting, ‘New Zealand’.

Type locality ‘New Zealand’ (Reeve 1852 [in 1851–1854]: species 810).

Previous illustrations of type material: Reeve (1852 [in 1851–1854]: pl. 132, fig. 810); Pfeiffer (1853 [in 1852–1860]: pl. 155, figs. 43–47); Tryon (1885 [from Reeve 1852]: pl. 24, fig. 75).

Remarks: Helix biconcava Reeve, 1852 and H. biconcava Pfeiffer, 1853 are based on the same type material, which H. Cuming had obtained from the Australian-based naturalist Frederick Strange. Pfeiffer evidently intended to publish the original description of this species in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London issue for 1851 (see Reeve 1852 [in 1851–1854]: species 810; Pfeiffer 1853a: 109, 1854 [in 1852–1860]: 458), but publication was delayed until 1854 ( Pfeiffer 1854b: 149), and was pre-empted by Reeve (1852 [in 1851–1854]). Authorship of this species has generally been attributed to Pfeiffer (e.g., Hector 1873: 13; Hutton 1880: 11; Suter 1913b: 729; Climo 1969a: 214; Powell 1979: 307; Spencer et al. 2009: 215), but Reeve (1852) has priority. Helix biconcava Reeve, 1852 [= Helix biconcava Pfeiffer, 1853 ] is the type species of Cavellia Iredale, 1915 , by original designation.

Taxonomy: Cavellia biconcava (Reeve, 1852) n. comb. is accepted here as an available valid name. Helix biconcava Pfeiffer, 1853 is a junior primary homonym and an objective junior synonym.

Distribution: New Zealand; southern North Island ( Mahlfeld 2005: fig. 97; NMNZ collection records).