History of changes

Introduction

This group of terrestrial and semi-arboreal land snails have a small to medium-sized lenticular to trochiform shell. They are distributed in tropical waters of the Pacific Ocean. The Polynesian and Melanesian trochomorphids were monographed by H.B. Baker (1941).

The only species recorded from Australia is restricted to Melville Island, Northern Territory (Solem 1988).

Trochomorphids are characterised by a weak upper pedal groove, a foot sole that lacks divisions, no shell lobes on the mantle, no distinct secondary venation of the lungs and a smooth jaw.

General References

Baker, H.B. 1941. Zonitid snails from Pacific Islands. Pt III & IV. Genera other than Microcystinae. Bulletin of the Bernice P. Bishop Museum 166: 205-370

Solem, A. 1959. Systematics of the land and freshwater Mollusca of the New Hebrides. Fieldiana Zoology 43: 1-234

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

Stanisic, J. 1998. Family Trochomorphidae. pp. 1104-1105 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.

History of changes

• Theskelomensor Iredale, T. 1933. Systematic notes on Australian land shells. Records of the Australian Museum 19: 37-59 [54].

  Type species:

   Helix lizardensis Pfeiffer, 1863 by original designation.

Distribution

States

Queensland

Extra Distribution Information

Cardwell Range, NE Qld to Lizard I, FN Qld

IBRA

Qld: Cape York Peninsula (CYP), Wet Tropics (WT)

Original AFD Distribution Data

Australian Region

• Australia
  • Queensland: NE coastal

History of changes

• Theskelomensor creon Solem, A. 1958. New land snail from Queensland. Nautilus 72: 20-22 [20].

  Type data:

   Holotype UMMZ 136666, 20 miles NW of Cardwell, QLD.

Distribution

States

Queensland

Extra Distribution Information

Cardwell Range, NW of Cardwell, NE Qld

IBRA

Qld: Wet Tropics (WT)

Original AFD Distribution Data

Australian Region

• Australia
  • Queensland

Ecological Descriptors

Litter-dwelling, rainforest.

History of changes

• Helix lizardensis Pfeiffer, L. 1863. Descriptions of thirty-six new land-shells, from the collection of H. Cuming, Esq. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 1862: 268-278 [Apr. 1863] [269].

  Type data:

   Syntype(s) BMNH 1982241 5 specimens, Lizard Is., QLD.

Generic Combinations

• Theskelomensor lizardensis (Pfeiffer, 1863).

Distribution

States

Queensland

Extra Distribution Information

Lizard and Palfrey islands, FN Qld

IBRA

Qld: Cape York Peninsula (CYP)

Original AFD Distribution Data

Australian Region

• Australia
  • Queensland

Ecological Descriptors

Litter-dwelling, vine thicket.

History of changes

• Trochomorpha Albers, J.C. 1850. Die Heliceen, nach natürlicher Verwandtschaft systematisch geordnet. Berlin : Verl. Th. Chr. Fr. Enslin 262 pp. [Aug. 1850] [116].

  Type species:

   Helix trochiformis Férussac, 1821 by subsequent designation, see Albers, J.C. 1860. Die Heliceen, nach natürlicher Verwandtschaft systematisch geordnet. 2. Ausgabe herausgegeben von E. von Martens. Leipzig : Verl. Wilhelm Engelman 359 pp. [60]; Baker, H.B. 1941. Zonitid snails from Pacific Islands. Pt III & IV. Genera other than Microcystinae. Bulletin of the Bernice P. Bishop Museum 166: 205-370 [285, 314] (=Trochomorpha typus Baker, 1941).

Distribution

States

Northern Territory

Extra Distribution Information

Islands of the Pacific Ocean.

IBRA

NT: Arnhem Coast (ARC), Arnhem Plateau (ARP), Burt Plain (BRT), Central Arnhem (CA), Channel Country (CHC), Central Ranges (CR), Daly Basin (DAB), Darwin Coastal (DAC), Davenport Murchison Ranges (DMR), Finke (FIN), Gulf Fall and Uplands (GFU), Great Sandy Desert (GSD), Gulf Coastal (GUC), MacDonnell Ranges (MAC), Mitchell Grass Downs (MGD), Ord Victoria Plain (OVP), Pine Creek (PCK), Simpson Strzelecki Dunefields (SSD), Stony Plains (STP), Sturt Plateau (STU), Tanami (TAN), Tiwi Cobourg (TIW), Victoria Bonaparte (VB)

Original AFD Distribution Data

Australian Region

• Australia
  • Northern Territory: N coastal

Distribution References

History of changes

• Trochomorpha melvillensis 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 [557].

  Type data:

   Holotype AM C135949*, Snake Bay, Melville Is., NT.
  Paratype(s) AM C121215*; AM C122023*; FMNH 201603*.

Distribution

States

Northern Territory

Extra Distribution Information

Known only from type locality.

IBRA

NT: Arnhem Coast (ARC), Arnhem Plateau (ARP), Burt Plain (BRT), Central Arnhem (CA), Channel Country (CHC), Central Ranges (CR), Daly Basin (DAB), Darwin Coastal (DAC), Davenport Murchison Ranges (DMR), Finke (FIN), Gulf Fall and Uplands (GFU), Great Sandy Desert (GSD), Gulf Coastal (GUC), MacDonnell Ranges (MAC), Mitchell Grass Downs (MGD), Ord Victoria Plain (OVP), Pine Creek (PCK), Simpson Strzelecki Dunefields (SSD), Stony Plains (STP), Sturt Plateau (STU), Tanami (TAN), Tiwi Cobourg (TIW), Victoria Bonaparte (VB)

Original AFD Distribution Data

Australian Region

• Australia
  • Northern Territory: N coastal

Ecological Descriptors

Open forest.

Extra Ecological Information

Under rocks.

General References

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 (anatomy)

History of changes