Small-sized, globose shells with a raised spire, a thick calcareous, concentric operculum, a bifurcate penis that has pallial innervation, a pallial kidney, the gill and mantle edge modified for ciliary feeding and no metapodial or pallial tentacles.
Gabbia Tryon, 1865
Class Gastropoda
Infraclass Caenogastropoda
Order Littorinida
Suborder Rissoidina
Superfamily Truncatelloidea
Family Bithyniidae
Genus Gabbia Tryon, 1865
Type species: Gabbia australis Tryon, 1865 (= Bithynia vertiginosa Frauenfeld, 1862) by monotypy.
Original reference: Tryon, G.W. (1865) Descriptions of new species of Amnicola, Pomatiopsis, Pomatogyrus, Gabbia, Hydrobia and Rissoa. American Journal of Conchology 1: 219–222.
Type locality: 'New Holland'.
Synonyms: Mysoria Godwin-Austen, 1919 (homonym); Mysorella Godwin-Austen, 1919.
We follow Ponder (2003) in this resource.
Typically living in temporary ponds, billabongs, swamps and sluggish streams. Some also inhabit artesian springs. They are ciliary filter feeders utilising the gill and some are grazers. They are oviparous.
Asia, Australia. Gabbia is found mainly in the inland, the east coast, and the northern coastal drainages of the Australian mainland. They are absent from Tasmania and the southwest corner of Western Australia.
Some Asian bithyniids are important intermediate hosts of the human bile fluke (Clonorchis sinensis).Several Asian taxa also serve as the first intermediate host of Opisthorchis viverrini, a liver fluke infecting humans, cats and dogs in Thailand. Parasites have been recorded from Australian taxa.
An Indian species, Gabbia stenothyroides (Dohrn, 1857), has been intercepted by Australian Biosecurity (A. Broadley, pers. comm.).
Beesley, P. L., Ross, G. J. B. & Wells, A., Eds. (1998). Mollusca: The Southern Synthesis. Parts A & B. Melbourne, CSIRO Publishing.
Cotton, B. C. (1942). Australian Gastropoda of the families Hydrobiidae, Assimineidae and Acmeidae. Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia 66: 124–131.
Frauenfeld, G. R. v. (1862). Versuch einer Aufzählung der Arten der Gattung Bithynia Lch. und Nematura Bns. nach der kaiserlichen und Cuming’s Sammlung. Verhandlungen der Kaiser-Königlichen Zoologisch-Botanischen Gesellschaft in Wien 12: 1145-1161.
Iredale, T. (1943). A basic list of the fresh water Mollusca of Australia. Australian Zoologist 10: 188-230.
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Kim, J.-J. (2005). Comparative anatomy of the family Bithyniidae (Prosobranchia: Mesogastropoda). The Korean Journal of Malacology 21: 133-145.
Ponder, W. F. (2003). Monograph of the Australian Bithyniidae (Caenogastropoda: Rissooidea). Zootaxa 230: 1-126.
Ponder, W. (2019). Bithyniidae Gray, 1857. Pp. 101-103 in C. Lydeard & Cummings, K. S. Freshwater Mollusks of the World: a Distribution Atlas. Baltimore, John Hopkins University Press.
Smith, B. J. (1992). Non-marine Mollusca. Pp. i-xii, 1-408 in W. W. K. Houston. Zoological Catalogue of Australia, 8. Canberra, Australian Government Publishing Service.
Smith, E.A. (1882).On the freshwater shells of Australia. Journal of the Linnean Society of London, Zoology 16: 255–316.
Smith, E. A. (1887). Notes on Australian species of Bithinia, Segmentina, and Fusus and description of a new Melania. Journal of Conchology 5: 235-238.
Tate, R. (1882). The land and freshwater molluscs of tropical South Australia. Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia 5: 47-56.
