Diagnostic features

This subspecies is very similar to the Darling River N. sublineata sublineata but differs in its more conical shell that lacks any subangulation of the whorls. It is somewhat variable throughout its range and exhibits considerable genetic variation (Carini & Hughes 2006). The head-foot is dark grey with yellow to orange spots in N. hanleyi, but is unpigmented or very pale grey with yellowish to pinkish spots in N. sublineata.

Classification

Notopala sublineata alisoni (Brazier, 1879)

Common name: Alison's river snail

Class Gastropoda

Infraclass Caenogastropoda

Informal group Architaenioglossa

Order Viviparida

Superfamily Viviparioidea

Family Viviparidae

Subfamily: Bellamyinae

Genus Notopala Cotton, 1935

Original name: Vivipara alisoni Brazier, 1879. In Brazier, J. (1879). Descriptions of a new species of Vivipara. Proceedings of the Linnean Society of NSW 3: 221-222.

Type locality: Diamantina River, Queensland.

Synonym: Notopala barretti Cotton, 1935

State of taxonomy

The taxonomy used here for Viviparidae is largely based on unpublished research by W. Ponder. Several undescribed taxa are known that mainly occur in areas outside the distribution of the species recognised here.

Biology and ecology

Lives on the muddy sides and bottom of large and small permanent and seasonal rivers, often attached to wood and rocks. Although the biology of this subspecies has not been studied, its anatomy shows that it is in part at least a suspension feeder, using the gill for filtering food from the water like other viviparids, and that it broods its eggs in the pallial oviduct.

Distribution

Northern inland and a few coastal drainages in Queensland and northern South Australia.

Further reading