Helix alpha Pfeiffer 1853

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 : 26

Helix alpha Pfeiffer 1853

Pl. 6, fig. H

Pfeiffer, 1853. Monographia heliceorum viventium, 3: 112.

Type material: Syntypes, NHMUK 1985026 (1) , NHMUK 1985027 (1) (dry shell material) ; ex. Mus. Cuming (Acc. no. 1829).

Label details: ‘ H. alpha Pfr. ’ in Pfeiffer’s handwriting. ‘N. Zealand’.

Type locality: ‘Nova Seelandia’ ( Pfeiffer 1853a: 112, 1854a: 58).

Previous illustrations of type material: Reeve (1852 [in 1851–1854]: pl. 132, fig. 813)—as Helix stipulata ; Climo (1980: figs. 1 C, D)—also as H. stipulata .

Remarks: Helix stipulata Reeve, 1852 and H. alpha 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 813; Pfeiffer 1853a: 112), but was delayed until 1854 ( Pfeiffer 1854a: 58), and was pre-empted by Reeve (1852 [in 1851–1854]). Pilsbry (1892a: 55) designated H. alpha Pfeiffer, 1853 as the type species of Aeschrodomus Pilsbry, 1892 , which was a replacement name for Thera Hutton, 1883 (non Stephens, 1831). However, the designation of Helix stipulata Reeve, 1852 as the type species of Thera by Hutton (1883c: 532) takes precedence by typification of the replaced name (ICZN Article 67.8).

Current Taxonomy: Treated as an objective junior synonym of Helix stipulata Reeve, 1852 by Hedley & Suter (1893: 659), Suter (1894d: 272, 1913b: 699), Powell (1979: 311) and Climo (1980: 294).