Family HELICARIONIDAE Bourguignat, 1877
Introduction
This fairly large and diverse family of snails is distributed from Africa through to southeastern Asia, the western Pacific and Australia. In some Asian regions it represents a major part of the snail fauna (Solem 1966). In Australia, it represents a relatively minor part of the snail fauna and is confined mainly to the forest areas of the Great Divide of eastern Australia and of Tasmania. The two main types of helicarionids are encountered in Australia. One has a flattened, glossy, pale coloured helicoid shell and is found in tropical to warm temperate regions of the eastern coast. The other is what Solem (1974) termed a semi-slug, having a reduced, very fragile, usually transparent shell with a very wide aperture into which the body is usually too large to withdraw completely. The animal is quick and active and has mantle flaps or lappets which can, in some species, cover the shell.
In the past, undue emphasis probably has been given to shell features and animal colour and the delineation of species in this group is only tentative. The taxonomic arrangement of many of the tropical eastern Australian species are attributed to Stanisic, J. & Potter, D., pers. comm. Similarly, opinions on the southern helicarionids were supplied by R.C. Kershaw. The faunas of Lord Howe and Norfolk Islands are in particular in need of revision; the relationships of the many available names erected by Preston (1913) and Iredale (1944, 1945) are unknown but are currently being investigated by Ms. I. Hyman.
Barker (1999) treats the subfamily Euconulinae as a family comprising of 20 genera.
The family is characterized by either a flattened, glossy, helicoid shell with little or no sculpture or by a reduced, thin, fragile shell with very wide aperture. The animal usually has a pronounced caudal gland and is often very active and brightly coloured.
General References
Baker, H.B. 1938. Zonitid snails from Pacific Islands. Pt I. Southern genera of Microcystinae. Bulletin of the Bernice P. Bishop Museum 158: 1-102
Benthem Jutting, W.S.S. van 1950. Systematic studies on the non-marine Mollusca of the Indo-Australian Archipelago. II. Critical revision of the Javanese pulmonate land-shells of the families Helicarionidae, Pleurodontidae, Fruiticicolidae and Streptaxidae. Treubia 20: 381-505
Dartnall, A.J. & Kershaw, R.C. 1978. Description of a new species of Helicarion (Stylommatophora : Helicarionidae) in Tasmania. Records of the Queen Victoria Museum, Launceston 62: 1-18
Hyman, I.T., de la Iglesia Lamborena, I. & Köhler, F. 2017. Molecular phylogenetics and systematic revision of the south-eastern Australian Helicarionidae (Gastropoda, Stylommatophora). Contributions to Zoology 86(1): 51-95 [67]
Iredale, T. 1944. The land Mollusca of Lord Howe Island. The Australian Zoologist 10: 299-334 [10 May 1944]
Iredale, T. 1945. The land Mollusca of Norfolk Island. The Australian Zoologist 11: 46-71
Kershaw, R.C. 1979. Redescription of Helicarion cuvieri from southern Tasmania and Helicarion freycineti from New South Wales (Pulmonata : Helicarionidae). Journal of the Malacological Society of Australia 4: 145-156
Kershaw, R.C. 1981. Redescription of the genus Helicarion and of Helicarion niger (Quoy & Gaimard, 1832) from Victoria (Pulmonata : Helicarionidae). Journal of the Malacological Society of Australia 5: 17-31
Kershaw, R.C. 1983. The identity of Helicarion freycineti Férussac (Mollusca : Pulmonata). Journal of the Malacological Society of Australia 6(1–2): 59-61
Preston, H.B. 1913. Characters of new genera and species of terrestrial Mollusca from Norfolk Island. Annals and Magazine of Natural History 8 12: 522-538 [1 Dec. 1913]
Smith, B.J. 1998. Family Helicarionidae. pp. 1105-1106 in Beesley, P.L., Ross, G.J.B. & Wells, A. (eds). Mollusca: The Southern Synthesis. Fauna of Australia. Melbourne : CSIRO Publishing Vol. 5(Part B) pp. vi–viii, 565–1234.
Solem, A. 1966. Some non-marine mollusks from Thailand, with notes on classification of the Helicarionidae. Spolia Zoologica Musei Hauniensis 24: 7-110
Solem, A. 1974. The Shell Makers: Introducing Mollusks. New York : John Wiley & Sons 289 pp.
Solem, A. 1982. Small land snails from Northern Australia, II: Species of Westracystis Iredale, 1939 (Mollusca: Pulmonata, Helicarionidae). Journal of the Malacological Society of Australia 5: 175-193
Solem, A. 1989. Non-camaenid land snails of the Kimberley and Northern Territory, Australia. I. Systematics, affinities and ranges. Invertebrate Taxonomy 2(4): 455-604
History of changes
| Published | As part of group | Action Date | Action Type | Compiler(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 05-Feb-2014 | HELICARIONIDAE | 06-Feb-2012 | MODIFIED | Dr John Stanisic (BAAM) |
| 18-Jun-2010 | 06-Feb-2012 | MODIFIED | ||
| 12-Feb-2010 | (import) |