Pseudonapaeus purii (H.S. Ray, 1951 ) Tripathy & Mukhopadhyay & Sajan, 2022

Tripathy, Basudev, Mukhopadhyay, Amit & Sajan, Sheikh, 2022, Pseudonapaeus purii (Ray, 1951), comb. nov., rediscovery of an endemic snail from western Himalaya (Gastropoda: Enidae), Records of the Zoological Survey of India 122 (4), pp. 359-362 : 360-361

Pseudonapaeus purii (H.S. Ray, 1951) comb. nov. ( Figures 1A and 1B )

1951. Ena purii Ray, Rec. Indian Mus. , 49 (1): 33–35, fig. 1, pl.

2, figs 13, 14.

Type Material: NZSI M.16063/2 (Holotype) , NZSI M.16064/2 (Paratype)

Type Locality: “Swagni Maidan (alt. 10,000 ft.), a gently sloping meadow originally a moraine without tree growth, in Pulga in the Parbatti Valley, Kulu Sub-division , Punjab ” .

Material Examined: India, Himachal Pradesh, Kullu district, Great Himalayan National Park, Machangalu (31° 45.991’N, 77° 28.398’E, 3166 m ASL), 2 ex., 9.iv.2018, coll. S. K. Sajan, NZSI M.35156/10.

Description: Shell small, sinistral, ovately-cylindrical, turreted, umbilicated, uniformly covered with a very thin, chalky-white coating on the last four whorls, which more or less conceals the original horny-brown colour visible only on the uppermost whorls, apex obtuse; whorl 8½, regularly increasing, convex, each one adorned on the surface with numerous distinct longitudinal plications (all of which may not be equal in size or regularly arranged) giving it a corrugated tin-like appearance, the plications gradually becoming more prominent from above downwards; sutures more impressed and oblique; aperture oblong-ovate, interior pale brownish, edentate; peristome broad and reflected, but not united upwards with the columella which is dilated, slanting and curved (at the place where it unites with upper lip) like that of the latter. Streaks colouration is brown on the surface.

Distribution: India: Pulga in the Parbatti Valley; Machangalu, Great Himalayan National Park, Kullu district, Himachal Pradesh.

Biotopes: Pseudonapaeus purii is a high-altitude species, found in the upper snow line area above 3000 m. ASL, under leaf litter.

Measurements (mm): SH = 13.92–16.44, SW = 5.34–

5.98, AH = 4.98–5.14, AW = 4.22–4.6

Remarks: Ray (1951: pp. 33–35, fig. 1, pl. 2, figs 13, 14) described and illustrated the new species and distinguished it from its closest ally Ena vibex (= Pseudonapaeus vibex ), on the basis of distinct longitudinal plications (instead of striations) on the surface, more impressed and oblique sutures. Furthermore, P. purii is closely similar to Ena nevilliana (= Pseudonapaeus nevillianus ), but the easily differentiated basis of the shell opening,

Figures

Figure 1. Shell of Pseudonapaeus purii (H.S. Ray, 1951) (A). Holotype NZSI M.16063/2, (B). Sub-adult shell from Great Himalayan National Park (C). Original label of type specimens housed in Zoological Survey of India.