Helix varicosa Pfeiffer, 1853

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 : 62-63

Helix varicosa Pfeiffer, 1853

Pl. 14, fig. H, Pl. 16, fig. C

Pfeiffer, 1853a. Monographia heliceorum viventium, 3: 97.

Type material: Lectotype fixed by inference of holotype ( ICZN Article 74.6) by Climo (1969a: 204, text figs. 16 A–C). Pfeiffer’s description was based on one or more specimens in the Cuming collection. Climo (1969b: 204) noted that R.K. Dell found a single ‘type specimen’ at the British Museum, probably during a visit c. 1960 (see Dell 1963). The lectotype was not found in the NHMUK collection in 2018, and its whereabouts is unknown. NHMUK 1849.12.22.124–125 contains a paralectotype of H. varicosa Pfeiffer , illustrated here in pl. 16, fig. C (see preceding species entry).

Type locality: ‘Nova Seelandia’ ( Pfeiffer 1853a: 97).

Previous illustrations of type material: Reeve (1852 [in 1851–1854]: pl. 133, fig. 824), Climo (1969a: text figs. 16 A–C [from a drawing by R.K. Dell]).

Remarks: Helix varicosa Reeve, 1852 and H. varicosa Pfeiffer, 1853 , are based on the same type material, which was sent to H. Cuming by the Australian-based naturalist Frederick Strange (Pfeiffer 1853: 97). Pfeiffer evidently intended to publish the original description in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London issue for 1851 (see Reeve 1852 [in 1851–1854]: species 824; Pfeiffer 1853a: 97), but publication was delayed until 1854 ( Pfeiffer 1854b: 148), and was pre-empted by Reeve (1852 [in 1851–1854]) [note that the publication date of ‘ October 1851 ’ listed for plate 133 of Reeve (1851 –1854) is presumed to be an error, as the immediately preceding and following plates were dated ‘ October 1852 ’ (see Petit 2007: table 3)]. Authorship was previously attributed to Pfeiffer (1853) (e.g., Hutton 1880: 7; Suter 1913b: 688; Climo 1978a: 187; Climo 1989: 593; Spencer et al. 2009: 215), but Reeve (1852) has priority.

Taxonomy: Helix varicosa Pfeiffer, 1853 is a junior primary homonym and an objective junior synonym of

Fectola varicosa (Reeve, 1852) N. syn.