Helix zeta 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 : 64-65

Helix zeta Pfeiffer, 1853

Pl. 5, fig. E

Pfeiffer, 1853. Monographia heliceorum viventium, 3: 109;

Type material: Syntypes (4), NHMUK 1962726 /1–4 (dry shell material); ex Museum Cuming (Acc. no. 1829) .

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

Type locality: ‘Nova Seelandia’ ( Pfeiffer 1853a: 110; 1854a: 58).

Previous illustrations of type material: Reeve (1852 [in 1851–1854]: pl. 132, fig. 808)—as Helix infecta ; Pfeiffer (1853 [in 1852–1860]: pl. 155, figs. 27–30); Tryon (1887 [from Reeve 1852]: pl. 3, fig. 14)—as Patula infecta ; Climo (1978a: fig. 3)—as Helix infecta .

Remarks: Helix infecta Reeve, 1852 and H. zeta Pfeiffer, 1853 are based on the same type material, which H. Cuming had obtained from the Australian-based naturalist Frederick Strange. The type material was probably collected by Strange during his trip on H.M.S. Acheron in 1848–1849. Other material in the NHMUK collection that is known to have been collected during the same voyage, includes five shells in NHMUK 1852.3.19.12–16, with the label details ’ Helix zeta Pfeiffer , New Zealand, presented by Col. Bolton’, and a further three specimens in NHMUK 1852.3.19.223–225, labelled ’ Helix zeta Pfeiffer , New Zealand, collected by F. Strange, presented by Capt. Stokes’. These specimens were quite likely collected at the same locality as the type material of infecta and zeta . 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 808; Pfeiffer 1853a: 109, 1854 [in 1852–1860]: 459), but publication was delayed until 1854 ( Pfeiffer 1854a: 58), and was pre-empted by Reeve (1852 [in 1851–1854]: species 808).

Current Taxonomy: Treated as an objective junior synonym of Helix infecta Reeve, 1852 by Martens (1873: 10), Hutton (1884b: 193), Suter (1913b: 717), Climo (1969a: 214) and Powell (1979: 307).