Helix jeffreysiana Reeve, 1852

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 : 80-81

Helix jeffreysiana Reeve, 1852

Pl. 9, fig. C

Reeve, (1851–1854) 1852. Conchologia iconica, 7: species 788, pl. 130, fig. 788.

Type material: Syntype (1), NHMUK 1978111 (dry shell material); ex Museum Cuming (Acc. no. 1829) .

Label details: ‘ Helix jeffreysiana New Zealand’—in Pfeiffer’s handwriting.

Type locality: Stated as unknown by Reeve (1852 [in 1851–1854]: species 788); ‘Nova Seelandia’ ( Pfeiffer 1853a: 105).

Previous illustrations of type material: Reeve (1852 [in 1851–1854]: pl. 130, fig. 788), Tryon (1885 [from Reeve 1852]: pl. 26, fig. 26).

Remarks: Helix jeffreysiana Reeve, 1852 and H. jeffreysiana Pfeiffer, 1853 are based on the same type material, which H. Cuming had obtained from the Australian-based naturalist Frederick Strange. Pfeiffer evidently intended to publish the original description of this species in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London issue for 1851 (see Reeve 1852 [in 1851–1854]: species 788; Pfeiffer 1853a: 105), but publication was delayed until 1854 ( Pfeiffer 1854b: 148), and was pre-empted by Reeve (1852 [in 1851–1854]: species 788). Authorship previously attributed to Pfeiffer (1853) (e.g., Hector 1873: 13; Hutton 1880: 24; Suter 1913b: 789; Powell 1979: 348; Spencer et al. 2009: 218), but Reeve (1852) has priority.

Taxonomy: Delos jeffreysiana (Reeve, 1852) n. comb. is accepted here as an available valid name. Helix jeffreysiana Pfeiffer, 1853 is a junior primary homonym and an objective junior synonym.

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