This subspecies differs from the similar N. hanleyi in its smaller, lighter, thinner shell, which has a thin, yellow periostracum. The shell also lacks the shoulder below the suture of the last whorl that is usually seen in N. hanleyi. A subspecies, N. sublineata alisoni, occurs in northern drainages in western Queensland and northern South Australia. 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.
Notopala sublineata sublineata (Conrad, 1850)
Common name: Darling river snail, northern NSW river snail
Class Gastropoda
Infraclass Caenogastropoda
Informal group Architaenioglossa
Order Viviparida
Superfamily Viviparioidea
Family Viviparidae
Subfamily: Bellamyinae
Original name: Paludina sublineata Conrad, 1850. In Conrad, R. A. (1850). Descriptions of new species of freshwater shells Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 5:10-11.
Type locality: Darling River, New South Wales.
Synonyms: Paludina polita Martens, 1865; Notopala gatliffi Cotton, 1935.
The taxonomy used here for Viviparidae is largely based on unpublished research by W. Ponder.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.
Previously lived on the muddy sides and bottom of the river, often attached to wood and rocks; previously common but now absent except in a few irrigation pipes and amongst rocks making up some weirs. Although the biology of this subspecies has not been studied, its anatomy shows that it is 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.
Darling River and its major tributaries, New South Wales. It was once common and now appears to be almost extinct in the river, living only in some irrigation pipelines and amongst rocks making up some weirs.
Cotton, B. C. (1935a). The Australian viviparous river snails. Victorian Naturalist 52: 96-99.
Cotton, B. C. (1935b). Recent Australian Viviparidae and a fossil species. Records of the South Australian Museum 5: 339-344.
Iredale, T. (1943). A basic list of the fresh water Mollusca of Australia. Australian Zoologist 10: 188-230.
Sheldon, F. & Walker, K. F. (1993a). Shell variation in Australian Notopala (Gastropoda: Prosobranchia: Viviparidae). Journal of the Malacological Society of Australia 14: 59-71.
Sheldon, F. & Walker, K. F. (1993b). Pipelines as a refuge for freshwater snails. Regulated Rivers: Research & Management 8: 295-299.
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.
