Austrochloritis

Abstract: Helix porteri Cox, 1866 is the type species of Austrochloritis Pilsbry, 1891, a speciose genus of camaenid land snail with a known range in eastern Australia stretching from Wilson’s Promontory in Victoria to southeastern Queensland. This species was first described based on material from two locations in New South Wales, “Upper Clarence River at Guy Faux Station” and “Upper Richmond River, at Cowlong”. These two locations are about 230 km apart from each other while all type material is considered to be lost. Comparative morpho-anatomy of specimens collected in the proximity of both type localities shows that the original concept of Helix porteri is based on two distinct species. Here we designate a neotype for this species from the Upper Richmond River area and provide a detailed redescription in order to remove any ambiguity about the identity of Austrochloritis porteri. Material from the vicinity of the second site mentioned in the original description of H. porteri, Guy Fawkes Station, is identified as Austrochloritis speculoris Shea & Griffiths, 2010. We describe key diagnostic features distinguishing both species.

Abstract: The systematic taxonomy of three currently accepted species of Austrochloritis Pilsbry, 1891 from central eastern New South Wales (A. nundinalis Iredale, 1943, A. niangala Shea & Griffiths, 2010, and A. kaputarensis Stanisic, 2010) is revised based on comparative morpho-anatomy and mitochondrial phylogenetics. In addition, the status of two undescribed candidate taxa identified as Austrochloritis spp. NE3 and SN39, respectively, is assessed. These species and candidate species are closely related to the type species of the genus, Austrochloritis porteri (Cox, 1866) from southern Queensland based on a recently published mitochondrial phylogeny. Comparative analyses of shell and reproductive anatomy revealed that the members of the A. porteri clade exhibit a rather similar morphology overall. Based on subtle, yet consistent differences in shell and reproductive features, we consider A. nundinalis as an accepted species. The species A. niangala, A. kaputarensis, and NE3 are considered as synonyms of each other and preference is given to the name A. niangala by First Reviewers Choice. The candidate taxon SN39 represents a new species, which is herein described as Austrochloritis copelandensis sp. nov. Records of the Australian Museum a peer-reviewed open-access journal published by the Australian Museum, Sydney communicating knowledge derived from our collections ISSN 0067-1975 (print), 2201-4349 (online)