Helix (Thalassia) traversi Smith, 1884

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 : 60

Helix (Thalassia) traversi Smith, 1884

Pl. 7, fig. C

Smith, 1884. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, (1884): 274, pl. 23, figs. 16, 16a, 16b.

Type material: Syntypes (2), NHMUK 1884.6.12.644–645 (dry shell material) .

Label details: ‘ New Zealand, Challenger Coll.’

Type locality: Wairarapa , Wellington, New Zealand ( Smith 1884: 274) .

Previous illustrations of type material: Smith (1884: pl. 23, figs. 16, 16a, 16b); Tryon (1886 [from Smith, 1884]: pl. 63, figs. 68–70).

Remarks: The type material was part of a small collection of New Zealand land snails that was presented to scientific staff of HMS Challenger by William Travers, when the ship was berthed at Wellington in 1874 ( Smith 1884: 274).

Current Taxonomy: Listed as Therasia traversi (E.A. Smith, 1884) by Hedley & Suter (1893: 641), Suter (1913b: 661), Powell (1979: 317) and Spencer et al. (2009: 216), but preliminary results of a phylogenetic study (M. Kennedy & F. Brook unpub. data) indicate that the placement in Therasia Hutton, 1883 requires re-evaluation.

Distribution: New Zealand; North Island and northern South Island ( Suter 1913b; Powell 1979).