A large limpet-like planorbid with a relatively smooth shell.
Ancylastrum cumingianus (Bourguignat, 1853)
Class Gastropoda
Infraclass Heterobranchia
Megaorder Hygrophila
Order Lymnaeida
Superfamily Planorboidea
Family Planorbidae
Subfamily: Miratestinae
Genus Ancylastrum Bourguignat, 1853
Original name: Ancylus (Ancylastrum) cumingianus Bourguignat, 1853. In Bourguignat, J.R. (1853). Catalogue des espèces du genre Ancylus. Journal de Conchyliologie 4: 169-199.
Type locality: Tasmania.
Synonym: Legrandia maddocki Hanley in Legrand, W. (1872).
Two species of Ancylastrum are recognised, with both occurring sympatrically in Great Lake (Richards et al. 2018).
Known from lakes of the Central Plateau of Tasmania. They were recently found by Kevin Macfarlane attached to wood in approximately 10 m of water.
Tasmania - upper Derwent drainage (specimen in Tasmanian Museum from Plenty, upstream from New Norfolk (K. Richards pers. comm.); also Woods Lake and Great Lake.
Also there is an historic record in the Queen Victoria Museum, Launceston of this species from the Ouse River, but subsequent sampling of that river has failed to locate it (K. Richards, pers. comm.).
Baker, F. C. (1945). The molluscan family Planorbidae. Urbana USA, University of Illinois Press.
Beesley, P. L., Ross, G. J. B. & Wells, A., Eds. (1998). Mollusca: The Southern Synthesis. Parts A & B. Melbourne, CSIRO Publishing.
Hubendick, B. (1955). Phylogeny of the Planorbidae. Transactions of the Zoological Society of London 28: 453-542.
Hubendick, B. (1964). Studies on Ancylidae: the subgroups. Göteborgs Kungliga Vetenskaps och Vitterhets Samhälles Handligar Sjatte Foljden B 9: 1-72.
Richards, K., Spencer, C. P., Barmuta, L. & Allen, J. (2015). Insights into the diet of trout in Tasmania’s central highlands lakes—an angler’s contribution to science. The Tasmanian Naturalist 137: 60-69.
Richards, K., Spencer, C. P. & Macfarlane, K. (2018). A biological investigation of the Great Lake Giant Freshwater Limpet, Ancylastrum cumingianus (Bourguignat 1853) and its larger cousin A. irvinae (Petterd 1888). The Tasmanian Naturalist 140: 161-173.
Smith, B. J. & Kershaw, R. C. (1981). Tasmanian Land and Freshwater Molluscs. Hobart, University of Tasmania.
Walker, J. C. (1988). Classification of Australian buliniform planorbids (Mollusca: Pulmonata). Records of the Australian Museum 40: 61-89.
