Species of the B. launcestonensis group are of medium size for the genus (2.0-4.2 mm in length), and rather globular. Their penis is simple. Found in the mid-north and north-eastern parts of Tasmania.
Beddomeia launcestonensis differs from other members of this group in shell having a thicker, wider inner lip; female genital system with smaller bursa copulatrix, seminal receptacle at ventral edge of bursa copulatrix (rest at posterior edge) and simple ventral channel; male genital system with elongate, pyriform prostate gland; mantle cavity with hypobranchial gland usually having irregular ridges.
Beddomeia launcestonensis (Johnston, 1879)
Class Gastropoda
Infraclass Caenogastropoda
Order Littorinida
Suborder Rissoidina
Superfamily Truncatelloidea
Family Beddomeiidae
Original name: Amnicola launcestonensis Johnston, 1879. In Johnston, R. M. (1879). Further notes on the fresh-water shells of Tasmania (with a description of a new species). Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania 1879, 19-29.
Type locality: First Basin, Launceston, 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 only from a small part of the South Esk River between the First Basin and the Trevallyn Dam (Karen Richards pers. comm.).
All species of Beddomeia are geographically isolated and have restricted ranges.
This species is on the Tasmanian Threatened Species Protection Act 1995 as Endangered.
Davies, P. E., Cook, L. S. J. & Smith, B. (2010). Cataract Gorge–Relationship between environmental flow releases and habitat for the Beddomeid snail, Beddomeia launcestonensis. Report to Hydo Tasmania.
Spiers, D. J. (2003). Factors affecting the distribution of the endemic hydrobiid gastropod, Beddomeia launcestonensis in Cataract Gorge, Launceston, Tasmania. PhD thesis, University of Tasmania.
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.
