Species in the B. tasmanica group have small shells (length 1.2-2.8 mm) with a depressed spire and open umbilicus. The penis is simple.
This species and B. trochiformis are similar and probably closely related. They differ from the generally similar B. kessneri in lacking a pallial tentacle and pigmentation of the head-foot. It also differs in having a simple arched rectum, two loops in the proximal coiled oviduct, a more elongate, narrower penis, a compressed (not swollen) prostate gland, and about 1/2 of the albumen gland lies in the pallial roof.
Beddomeia franklandensis Ponder & Clark, 1993
Class Gastropoda
Infraclass Caenogastropoda
Order Littorinida
Suborder Rissoidina
Superfamily Truncatelloidea
Family Beddomeiidae
Original name: Beddomeia franklandensis 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: Frankland River at Balfour, northern Tasmania.
Under large stones and rock slabs in deeper parts of the river. White egg capsules laid on the undersides of rocks are typical 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.
Known from the Frankland River in northern Tasmania.
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).
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.
