Helix lambda 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 : 49

Helix lambda Pfeiffer, 1853

Pl. 5, fig. C

Pfeiffer, 1853. Monographia heliceorum viventium, 3: 84.

Type material: Syntypes, NHMUK 1996111 (2) , NHMUK 1996112 (3) (dry shell material) ; ex Museum Cuming (Acc. no. 1829).

Label details: ‘n.sp. H. lambda Pfr. N. Zealand’—in Pfeiffer’s handwriting.

Type locality: ‘Nova Seelandia’ (Pfeiffer 1853: 85, 1854a: 57).

Previous illustrations of type material: Reeve (1852 [in 1851–1854]: pl. 128, fig. 774—as Helix igniflua ); Tryon (1885 [from Reeve 1852]: pl. 26, fig. 25—as Elaea igniflua ).

Remarks: Helix igniflua Reeve, 1852 and H. lambda Pfeiffer, 1853 are based on the same type material. 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 744; Pfeiffer, 1853a: 85), but publication was delayed until 1854 ( Pfeiffer 1854a: 57), and was pre-empted by Reeve (1852 [in 1851–1854]).

Current Taxonomy: Treated as a junior synonym of Helix obnubila Reeve, 1852 by Hutton (1884b: 203).