This species is the only Austropyrgus that is known to occur in southern Queensland. It differs from other freshwater tateids occurring in Queensland by having prominent pegs on the operculum and four pairs of basal cusps on the central teeth of the radula.
Austropyrgus bunyaensis Miller, Clark & Ponder 1999
Class Gastropoda
Infraclass Caenogastropoda
Order Littorinida
Suborder Rissoidina
Superfamily Truncatelloidea
Family Tateidae
Genus Austropyrgus Cotton, 1942
Original name: Austropyrgus bunyaensis Miller, Clark & Ponder 1999. In Miller, A. C., Ponder, W. F. & Clark, S. A. (1999). Freshwater snails of the genera Fluvidona and Austropyrgus (Gastropoda, Hydrobiidae) from northern New South Wales and southern Queensland, Australia. Invertebrate Taxonomy 13: 461-493.
Type locality: Mt Mowbullan, Bunya Mountains, Queensland..
In seepages and small streams on water weeds, hard substrata (rocks etc.) and crawling on litter and sediment. Assumed to feed by scraping bacteria and microalgae.
Known only from small streams near the top of Mt Mowbullan, Bunya Mountains, southern Queensland.
This is one of two species of Austropyrgus occurring far outside the range of the majority of species, being found in the Bunya Mountains in southern Queensland, the other (A. centralia) is found in Dalhousie Springs in the far north of South Australia.
Most species of Austropyrgus are geographically isolated and have restricted ranges, and this one is no exception.
Clark, S. A., Miller, A. C. & Ponder, W. F. (2003). Revision of the snail genus Austropyrgus (Gastropoda: Hydrobiidae): a morphostatic radiation of freshwater gastropods in southeastern Australia. Records of the Australian Museum 28: 1–109.
Miller, A. C., Ponder, W. F. & Clark, S. A. (1999). Freshwater snails of the genera Fluvidona and Austropyrgus (Gastropoda, Hydrobiidae) from northern New South Wales and southern Queensland, Australia. Invertebrate Taxonomy 13: 461-493.
