Limnaea pucilla Hutton, 1884

Brook, Fred J., Kennedy, Martyn, King, Tania M., Ridden, Johnathon, Shaw, Matthew D. & Spencer, Hamish G., 2020, Catalogue of New Zealand land, freshwater and estuarine molluscan taxa named by Frederick Wollaston Hutton between 1879 and 1904, Zootaxa 4865 (1), pp. 1-73 : 18

Limnaea pucilla Hutton, 1884

Pl. 1, fig. K

Hutton, 1884 . New Zealand Journal of Science, 2: 175.

Type material. Syntypes, CMNZ M358 (1) ; NMNZ M.125547 [ex H. Suter colln.] (1) (dry shells). Hutton (1885c: 56) noted that the original description was based on two specimens .

Label details. CMNZ M358 —‘19. Limnaea pucilla Hutton , Auckland’, pillbox label in Hutton’s handwriting ; NMNZ M.125547— Limnaea pusilla Hutton , Syntype, Auckland, Hu.’, in H. Suter’s handwriting .

Type locality. ‘Auckland’ ( Hutton 1884h: 175 , 1885c: 56).

Previous illustrations of type material. Hutton (1885c: pl. 12, fig. 5), Dell (1956: fig. 10).

Remarks. Hutton submitted a description of this species to the Transactions and Proceedings of the New Zealand Institute issue for 1884, but publication was delayed until May 1885 ( Hutton 1885c: 56 ), and was preempted by a brief description in an account of a meeting of the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury ( Hutton 1884h: 175 ). Species name unnecessarily emended to pusilla by Hedley & Suter (1893: 625). Hubendick (1951: 171, 179, 200) treated Limnaea pucilla Hutton, 1884 and Limnaea alfredi Suter, 1890 , which was based on shells from Hooker Valley, Canterbury, as synonyms of Limnaea tenella Hutton, 1884 , and noted that the shells of this taxon were similar to those of the European species Galba truncatula (Müller, 1774) , albeit with a less elevated spire. Dell (1956: 73) observed that pucilla was based on immature shells and had not been recorded subsequently from the type locality. He suggested that this species most closely resembled Limnaea alfredi Suter, 1890 , which was listed as a junior synonym of G. truncatula by Climo & Pullan (1972: 6 —in Lymnaea ). Dell (1956) noted it was possible that “the types of pucilla are juveniles of introduced or even foreign shells, which never lived in New Zealand ”, and he recommended that the name pucilla be considered indeterminate. Marshall (1996: 34) indicated that the type material (see pl. 1, fig. K) was well preserved and identification should be possible, and he suggested that pucilla may be based on juveniles of an introduced species.

Current taxonomy. taxon inquirendum—this study.

Distribution. Type material from Auckland; possibly based on an introduced taxon ( Dell 1956: 73).