The shell of G. fontana lacks distinctive sculpture, and is thus superficially similar to the species resembling G. vertiginosa (including G. iredalei and G. campicola). However, it differs from all these in being distinctly umbilicate, and in the central teeth of the radula having only two pairs of cusps on their lateral faces, the inner-most being moderately large, the outer pair being minute. G. fontana is also unusual in, when pigmented (the usual condition), the mantle roof is solid black rather than mottled.
Gabbia fontana Ponder, 2003
Class Gastropoda
Infraclass Caenogastropoda
Order Littorinida
Suborder Rissoidina
Superfamily Truncatelloidea
Family Bithyniidae
Original name: Gabbia fontana Ponder, 2003. In Ponder, W.F. (2003) Monograph of the Australian Bithyniidae (Caenogastropoda: Rissooidea). Zootaxa 230: 1-126.
Type locality: Big Spring, about 3 km southeast of Edgbaston HS, approximately 31 km northeast of Aramac, Queensland.
This species lives in shallow water on the edges of outflows, or along the damp edges of artesian springs. It can be very abundant.
This species appears to be restricted to artesian springs on Edgbaston Station near Aramac, western Queensland.
Fensham, R., Ponder, W. & Fairfax , R. (2010). Recovery plan for the community of native species dependent on natural discharge of groundwater from the Great Artesian Basin. Report to Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts, Canberra. Queensland Department of Environment and Resource Management, Brisbane. https://www.environment.gov.au/system/files/resources/0cefc83a-3854-4cff-9128-abc719d9f9b3/files/great-artesian-basin-ec.pdf
Ponder, W. F. (2003). Monograph of the Australian Bithyniidae (Caenogastropoda: Rissooidea). Zootaxa 230: 1-126.
Rossini, R. A., Fensham, R. J. & Walter, G. H. (2017). Spatiotemporal variance of environmental conditions in Australian artesian springs affects the distribution and abundance of six endemic snail species. Aquatic Ecology 51: 511-529.
