Beddomeia bellii Petterd, 1889

Diagnostic features

Species included in the B. bellii group are small to medium-sized (2.3-3 mm in length), ovate-conic to ovate and usually have a columellar swelling. The penis is simple or with a lenticular brown gland in the middle. Species in this group are restricted to north-western Tasmania.

Differs from the otherwise similar B.protuberata in the shell having a weaker columella swelling. The penis is simple in both species.

Classification

Beddomeia bellii Petterd, 1889

Class Gastropoda

Infraclass Caenogastropoda

Order Littorinida

Suborder Rissoidina

Superfamily Truncatelloidea

Family Beddomeiidae

Genus Beddomeia Petterd, 1889

Original name: Beddomeia bellii Petterd, 1889. In Petterd, W. F. (1889). Contributions for a systematic catalogue of the aquatic shells of Tasmania Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania 1888: 60-83.

Type locality: Heazlewood River, Tasmania.

Biology and ecology

On and under stones and aquatic vegetation, roots, sedges and leaves in streams. Egg capsules typical of Beddomeia (i.e., dome-shaped, with broad attachment base, covered with minute, mainly white sand grains and other fragments and containing a single egg) found although they could have belonged to B. hullii which occurs sympatrically. Development is direct.

Distribution

This species is known from Heazlewood River and Thirteen Mile Creek, Tasmania.

Notes

All species of Beddomeia are geographically isolated and have restricted ranges.

This species is on the Tasmanian Threatened Species Protection Act 1995 as Rare (small population at risk).

Further reading

Ponder, W. F., Clark, G. A., Miller, A. C. & Toluzzi, A. (1993). On a major radiation of freshwater snails in Tasmania and eastern Victoria: a preliminary overview of the Beddomeia group (Mollusca: Gastropoda: Hydrobiidae). Invertebrate Taxonomy 7: 501-750.