This species is apparently closely related to P. warwicki, having a similar, although more pupiform, shell, in lacking head-foot pigment and a pallial tentacle, and in having very similar anatomy, including the penis having a slightly swollen distal end and the female genital opening being a subterminal slit. The two taxa can be distinguished by the smaller number of ctenidial filaments in P. pupiformis (16-19 compared with 18-24), and the apices are on the left to central in P. pupiformis and right to central in P. warwicki. In addition the efferent vessel between the pericardium and the posterior end of the ctendium is much longer in P. pupiformis, the capsule gland is thicker in P. pupiformis and the distal end of the penis more elongate in P. pupiformis than in P. warwicki.
Phrantela pupiformis Ponder & Clark, 1993
Class Gastropoda
Infraclass Caenogastropoda
Order Littorinida
Suborder Rissoidina
Superfamily Truncatelloidea
Family Tateidae
Original name: Phrantela pupiformis Ponder & Clark, 1993. In 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.
Type locality: Tributary of Tyenna River, at Gordon River Road, Tasmania (42°44'11" S, 146°28'5' E).
In moss and on small waterfalls and in fern roots. Egg capsules unknown but probably like those of an unnamed species of Phrantela; small, with single embryo, and covered in coarse sand grains. Development direct.
The type locality is a stream in beech forest where P. pupiformis occurs sympatrically with Nanocochlea cf. parva.
The type specimens are from a tributary of Tyenna River, at Gordon River Road, southern Tasmania and this species occurs in streams in the same general area.
This species is on the Tasmanian Threatened Species Protection Act 1995 as Rare (small population at risk).
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.
