Sermyla carbonata (Reeve, 1859)

Diagnostic features

The shells of Sermyla carbonata are taller and more slender, with a higher spire, and have less distinct axial and spiral ribs in comparison with S. cf. riqueti.

Classification

Sermyla carbonata (Reeve, 1859)

Class Gastropoda

Infraclass Caenogastropoda

Megaorder Cerithiimorpha

Order Cerithiida

Superfamily Cerithioidea

Family Thiaridae

Genus Sermyla H & A. Adams, 1854 (Type species: Melania mitra Dunker, 1844 = Sermya riquetii (Grateloup, 1840)

Original name: Melania carbonata Reeve, 1859. In Reeve, L. A. (1859-1861). Monograph of the genus Melania. In: Conchologia Iconica, or, illustrations of the shells of molluscous animals, vol. 12, pls 1-59 and unpaginated text. L. Reeve & Co., London.

Type locality: Unknown.

Synonyms: Melania venustula Brot, 1877; Sermylasma prognata Iredale, 1943.

Recorded as

State of taxonomy

This species was last revised by Lentge-Maaß et al. (2021).

Biology and ecology

On and in sediment, rocks and water weeds in estuarine and freshwater rivers, streams, ponds and billabongs. A detritus feeder. Broods larvae in a brood pouch in the head which contains about a dozen juveniles.

Distribution

Gulf of Carpentaria drainages of the Northern Territory and Howard Springs near Darwin; northern Queensland, and a few locations in central Australia and in NW Australia.

Notes

This species was known as Sermula venustula (Brot) until recently and also S. cf. riqueti.

Further reading

Glaubrecht, M., Brinkmann, N. & Pöppe, J. (2009). Diversity and disparity ‘down under’: systematics, biogeography and reproductive modes of the ‘marsupial’ freshwater Thiaridae (Caenogastropoda, Cerithioidea) in Australia. Zoosystematics and Evolution 85: 199-275.

Iredale, T. (1943). A basic list of the fresh water Mollusca of Australia. Australian Zoologist 10: 188-230.

Lentge-Maaß, N., Neiber, M. T., Gimnich, F., & Glaubrecht, M. (2021). Evolutionary systematics of the viviparous gastropod Sermyla (Gastropoda: Cerithioidea: Thiaridae), with the description of a new species. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 192(3): 736-762.

Maaß, N. and Glaubrecht, M. (2012). Comparing the reproductive biology of three “marsupial”, eu-viviparous gastropods (Cerithioidea, Thiaridae) from drainages of Australia’s monsoonal north. Zoosystematics and Evolution 88: 293–315.

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.

Willan, E. C. & Kessner, V. (2021). A conspectus of the freshwater molluscs of the Daly River catchment, Northern Territory. Northern Territory Naturalist 30: 108-137.