Pila robsoni Prashad, 1925 Figs 10, 15B

Pila robsoni Prashad, 1925. Mem. Ind. Mus. 8(2): 85-86, pl. 14, figs 8, 9.

Current taxonomic status.

Pila robsoni Prashad, 1925, valid species.

Type locality.

"near Balapiti, Ceylon" [= Balapitiya, Kegalla district, Sri Lanka]; G. Nevill, leg. (Nevill 1877: 12).

Type material.

Holotype (original designation): NZSI M.2414 (registered 8 December 1920). Paratypes: NZSI M.21546/4 (registered 5 July 1982, 3 spms).

Shell dimensions.

Holotype: SH 33.9 mm, SW 30.0 mm, AH. 25.8 mm, AW 19.5 mm. Paratypes: SH 17.5-21.7 mm, SW 15.0-19.1 mm, AH 13.4-16.3 mm, AW 8.3-11.3 mm, OH 13.4-13.4 mm, OW 7.6-7.6 mm.

Remarks.

Nevill (1877: 12, 1885: 7) referred his four specimens to Ampullaria moesta Reeve, 1856, but Prashad (1925: 85-86) considered this a misidentification and described his new species, based on Nevill’s four specimens, providing measurements of all four and distinguishing the largest specimen as the “Type” (= holotype). The original catalogue number for the entire type series was 2414. All but the holotype have subsequently been removed from this lot and given the catalogue number NZSI M.21546/4. The photograph of Prashad (1925: pl. 14, fig. 8) is clearly the specimen in NZSI M.2414 (Fig. 10), the holotype, based most notably on the erosion/corrosion of the apex; his other photograph (Prashad 1925: pl. 14, fig. 9) is of one of the paratypes.