Beddomeia bowryensis Ponder & Clark, 1993

Diagnostic features

Species of the B. hullii group are found in the northern half of Tasmania. Their shells are small (1.7-3.7 mm in length; most less than 3.5 mm), simple, ovate-conic to broadly conic, with a thin inner lip and no columellar bulge. The periphery of the last whorl of the shell is rounded, subangled or angled and the penis simple.

This species differs from other members of this group in a mantle cavity with fewer ctenidial filaments (14-16); radula with U-shaped median cusps on central and lateral radular teeth; female genital system with single bend in proximal coiled oviduct which extends posterior to bursa copulatrix.

Classification

Beddomeia bowryensis Ponder & Clark, 1993

Class Gastropoda

Infraclass Caenogastropoda

Order Littorinida

Suborder Rissoidina

Superfamily Truncatelloidea

Family Beddomeiidae

Genus Beddomeia Petterd, 1889

Original name: Beddomeia bowryensis Ponder & Clark, 1993. In 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.

Type locality: Bowry Creek, tributary of Savage River, side road, off Corinna Road, Tasmania.

Biology and ecology

This species is mostly found on aquatic vegetation. Egg capsules presumably like those of other species of Beddomeia - dome-shaped, with broad attachment base, covered with minute, mainly white sand grains and other fragments and containing a single egg. Development direct.

Distribution

Known from Bowry 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.