Metalycaeus rathouisianus (Heude, 1882)

Pall-Gergely, Barna, Sajan, Sheikh, Tripathy, Basudev, Meng, Kaibaryer, Asami, Takahiro & Ablett, Jonathan D., 2020, Genus-level revision of the Alycaeidae (Gastropoda, Cyclophoroidea), with an annotated species catalogue, ZooKeys 981, pp. 1-220 : 1

Metalycaeus rathouisianus (Heude, 1882) Figs 34 , 35

Alycaeus rathouisianus Heude, 1882: 7, pl. 12, figs 12, 12a.

Alycaeus rathouisianus - Möllendorff 1882: 345.

Alycoeus [sic] neglectus Heude, 1885: 96, pl. 24, fig. 4. syn. nov.

Alycaeus (Orthalycaeus) rathouisianus - Möllendorff 1886: 169.

Alycaeus (Orthalycaeus) neglectus - Möllendorff 1886: 170.

Alycaeus (Chamalycaeus) neglectus - Kobelt and Möllendorff 1897: 149; Kobelt 1902: 360.

Alycaeus (Chamalycaeus) rathouisianus - Kobelt and Möllendorff 1897: 149; Kobelt 1902: 362.

Alycaeus dolomiticus Heude, 1890: 130, pl. 38, fig. 1.

Chamalycaeus rathouisianus - Yen 1939: 30, pl. 2, fig. 36.

Chamalycaeus (Chamalycaeus) rathouisianus - Zilch 1957: 145.

Metalycaeus rathouisianus - Páll-Gergely et al. 2017: 98-103, figs 55A-C, 63A, B, 65A, B.

Dicharax (?) neglectus - Páll-Gergely et al. 2017: 105-107, fig. 69K.

Type locality.

"E collibus juxta civitatem Song-kiang (松江), provinciæ Kiang-sou, ad montes districtus Tong-lieou, sed non ubique" ( Alycaeus rathouisianus ); " ad rupestres colles civitatis Kien-té, provinciæ Ngan-houé legeram " ( Alycaeus neglectus ); "Ad calcarios lapides juxtà civitatem Tchen-kiang (Kiang-sou)".

Material examined.

China, Tsing-p’on, MCZ 167143 (23 syntypes of A. rathouisianus ); Sung-kiang: China, coll. Möllendorff ex coll. Heude, SMF 39243 (5 syntypes of A. rathouisianus ); same data, 39303 (3 syntypes of A. rathouisianus ); China, Tchein-kiang (Kiang-sou), MCZ 167209 (29 syntypes of A. dolomiticus ); HMT-221a (labelled as lectotype of Alycaeus dolomiticus , Fig. 34 ) deposited in IZCAS: locality information were deleted; HMT-221 (labelled as paralectotype of Alycaeus dolomiticus ), same data with HMT-221; HMT-220a (1 syntype, labelled as lectotype of Alycaeus neglectus , Fig. 35 ), deposited in IZCAS: Tong-lieu (Dong-Liu town, Dong-Zhi County, Chi-Zhou City, An-Hui Province, China); Same data, HMT-220 (1 syntype, labelled as paralectotype of Alycaeus neglectus ).

Remarks.

Alycaeus dolomiticus Heude, 1890 is a synonym of Metalycaeus rathouisianus (see Páll-Gergely et al. 2017).

According to Johnson (1973), paratypes of A. neglectus are present in the MCZ (inv. number: 167222) and the USNM (inventory number: 472336). In the revision of Chinese Alycaeidae ( Páll-Gergely et al 2017) we examined the former sample, but the locality ("China, Tong-lieou" in Anhui Province) did not match the type locality given in the original description ( “Kien-té” in Zhejiang Province). Consequently, we did not consider them as type specimens; moreover, on a hand-written label of the MCZ 167222 sample the following text was written: "not types, only holotype in Heude’s coll.". We have now been able to examine the specimens in the Beijing museum, and found that the specimens labelled as types also have the same type locality ( “Tong-lieu”). The Beijing specimens were also labelled as lectotype (HMT-221a), and paralectotypes (HMT-221). It appears that although the locality on the type specimen labels and that in the original description do not match, the shells labelled as types are indeed types of A. neglectus . Since we did not find traces of the lectotype designation, we consider all type specimens of A. neglectus syntypes.

Since we did not consider the specimens in the MCZ types in Páll-Gergely et al. (2017), we had to rely on the original description regarding the identity of A. neglectus , and based on the low protoconch in the figure of the original description, we tentatively classified it in Dicharax . However, this opinion must now be revised: the shells labelled as types in the Beijing Museum and in the MCZ are identical, and they are also identical to typical Alycaeus rathouisianus shells. Thus, A. neglectus is considered a synonym of A. rathouisianus .

Figures

Figure 34. Metalycaeus rathouisianus (Heude, 1882), syntype: labelled as lectotype of Alycaeus dolomiticus (HMT- 221 a). Photographs: Kaibaryer Meng.

Figure 35. Alycaeus neglectus Heude, 1885, syntype (HMT- 220 a; synonym of Metalycaeus rathouisianus (Heude, 1882 )). Photographs: Kaibaryer Meng.