Milax emarginatus Hutton, 1879

Brook, Fred J., Kennedy, Martyn, King, Tania M., Ridden, Johnathon, Shaw, Matthew D. & Spencer, Hamish G., 2020, Catalogue of New Zealand land, freshwater and estuarine molluscan taxa named by Frederick Wollaston Hutton between 1879 and 1904, Zootaxa 4865 (1), pp. 1-73 : 54-55

Milax emarginatus Hutton, 1879

Hutton, 1879. Transactions of the New Zealand Institute, 11 (1878): 331.

Type material. Syntypes (3), OMNZ IV5716 (in alcohol), and syntype (1), NHMUK 1886.11.18.16 (in alcohol). The molluscan collection at CMNZ has a radula, jaw and shell mounted on glass slides with the label details ‘ Milax emarginatus, Dunedin, XIV p. 154’, in Hutton’s handwriting (i.e., CMNZ 2017.17.110–2017.17.112), which are probably primary type material of Milax emarginatus Hutton, 1879 (see radula description by Hutton 1882h: 154).

Label details. OMNZ IV5716—‘ Milax emarginatus = Amalia gagates Hutton, Dunedin (in Hutton’s handwriting)’.

NHMUK molluscan register details. 1886.11.18.16—‘ Milax emarginatus Hutton, Dunedin, Purchased of the Commission for the New Zealand, Indian and Colonial Exhibition 1886’.

Type locality. ‘Dunedin; common in gardens etc.’ (Hutton 1879: 331).

Previous illustrations of type material. Jaw and radula teeth illustrated by Hutton (1882h: pl. 3, figs. I, pl. 4, fig. S) probably from type material.

Remarks. The original label of the type material of Milax emarginatus at OMNZ has been lost or destroyed, but transcribed details indicate that this material was collected and identified by Hutton himself (see also Hutton 1884c: 205). A specimen of M. emarginatus that was mentioned by Cockerell (1891a: 340) as having been “found at Dunedin (Otago University Museum), in the British Museum” is possibly a syntype (NHMUK 1886.11.18.16). It was evidently sent to London as an exhibit in the Colonial and Indian Exhibition of 1886 and was subsequently purchased by the British Museum. There has been confusion over the identity of Milax emarginatus Hutton. Its distribution was initially listed as New Zealand only (Hutton 1879: 331, 1880: 26, 1884c: 205; Cockerell 1891a: 340), but Musson (1891: 886) implied that it could be adventive in New Zealand, and Hedley & Suter (1893: 665) listed it as adventive. Suter (1913: 1072) noted that it was related to Limax gagates Draparnaud, 1805 , and it was treated as a junior synonym of this species by Thomson (1922: 261), Powell (1979: 450) and Barker (1979: 420, 1982: 178, 1999: 87). Milax gagates (Draparnaud) is thought to be native to the coastal zone and islands of the western Mediterranean, and possibly Canary Islands, and has a very wide synanthropic distribution that includes central and northern Europe, South Africa, Atlantic islands, North and South America, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and some Pacific islands ( Wiktor 1987: 205, map 3; Barker 1999; Herbert 2010; Welter-Schultes, 2012: 432). It was first recorded in New Zealand in the Bay of Islands in 1840 (as Limax fuliginosus Gould, 1852 ), and was recorded by Barker (1999: 89, map 18) as being widely distributed in modified habitats in the North and South islands, and present also on Chatham Island.

Current taxonomy. A junior synonym of Milax gagates (Draparnaud, 1801) — Powell (1979), Barker (1979, 1982, 1999).

Family TESTACELLIDAE Gray, 1840