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.
Beddomeia kershawi differs from other members of this group in having a more ovate shell (i.e. higher spire); mantle cavity with small pallial tentacle (absent in other species), short S-shaped rectum and wider ctenidium; male genital system with prostate gland extending more into pallial roof, penis with short (not long), tapering distal end; female genital system with single bend in proximal and distal sections of coiled oviduct, bursal duct and oviduct join in front of posterior pallial wall and more than 2/3 of albumen gland in pallial roof.
Beddomeia kessneri Ponder & Clark, 1993
Class Gastropoda
Infraclass Caenogastropoda
Order Littorinida
Suborder Rissoidina
Superfamily Truncatelloidea
Family Beddomeiidae
Original name: Beddomeia kessneri 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: Dip Falls, above falls, Tasmania.
Under large stones and rock slabs in deeper parts of the river. The white egg capsules are laid on the undersides of rocks and are 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.
This species is known from Dip Falls in northwest Tasmania.
All species of Beddomeia are geographically isolated and have restricted ranges.
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.
