Species in the B. paludinella group have rather large shells for the genus (2.8-5.6 mm in length), with depressed spire and broad, thickened inner lip. Penis simple. Found in the western part of the middle north coast of Tasmania.
This species differs from other members of the group in possessing a mantle cavity with a hooked osphradium (also in B. paludinella levenensis) and 7-9 horizontal ridges on hypobranchial gland. Furthermore, its female genital system has an initial bend in the coiled oviduct which is almost horizontal.
Beddomeia paludinella paludinella (Reeve, 1857)
Class Gastropoda
Infraclass Caenogastropoda
Order Littorinida
Suborder Rissoidina
Superfamily Truncatelloidea
Family Beddomeiidae
Original name: Littorina paludinella Reeve, 1858. In Reeve, L. H. (1858). Monograph of the genus Littorina. Conchologia Iconica 10, plates 17-18.
Type locality: Hellyer River, Tasmania.
This species lives on the sides and on top of rocks in flowing water. 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.
This taxon is known from the Hellyer River and Hellyer Gorge, 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.
