This species has a conical, umbilicate, smooth shell and reaches about 3.9 mm in length. The aperture is usually partly or entirely detached from parietal wall.
The genus Springvalia is diagnosed as follows:
Shell small to moderate in size, elongate-conic, whorls convex, aperture subpyriform, peristome thin to slightly thickened, inner lip narrowly to widely separated from parietal wall; narrowly to moderately umbilicate. Sculpture of growth lines only. Protoconch of 1.3–1.5 whorls, finely punctate. Operculum yellowish, subpyriform, flat to slightly concave, paucispiral with last whorl large, nucleus acentric; inner surface with white smear, without thickening or protuberances. Central teeth of radula with median cusp wider and longer than adjacent cusps; lateral margins medium to narrow; innermost basal cusps short to moderate, outer pair very small to absent (as in Fig. 11A). Rectum with or without an arch. Male with prostate gland tapering anteriorly and posteriorly, about half in mantle roof. Pallial vas deferens straight or slightly undulating. Penis broadly expanded and flattened distally, rapidly tapering to point or short papilla, glands absent. Female with coiled oviduct forming approximately vertical loop; bursa copulatrix lies beneath albumen gland. Ventral channel with terminal to subterminal opening, vestibule simple to moderately expanded. No cowl or gutter associated with opening (from Ponder et al. 2021).
Springvalia isolata (Ponder & Clark, 1990)
Class Gastropoda
Infraclass Caenogastropoda
Order Littorinida
Suborder Rissoidina
Superfamily Truncatelloidea
Family Tateidae
Genus Springvalia Ponder, Zhang, Hallan & Shea, 2019 (Type species Jardinella isolata Ponder & Clark, 1990).
Original name: Jardinella isolata Ponder & Clark, 1990. In Ponder, W. F. & Clark, G. A. (1990). A radiation of hydrobiid snails in threatened artesian springs in western Queensland. Records of the Australian Museum 42(3): 301-363.
Type locality: Elizabeth Springs, about 26 km NNW of Springvale, Queensland.
The Warra Station material is assigned here but this requires further testing.
Lives in swampy springs.
Elizabeth Springs and near Springvale and springs on Warra Station, N of Springvale, Western Queensland.
Springvalia differs from Jardinella in having a yellowish operculum, not reddish, and in its elongate-conic shell with the aperture separated from the parietal wall. It also differs in having the penis expanded in the distal part, the ventral channel extending just beyond the capsule gland rather than terminated behind the anterior end as in Jardinella, and in the bursa copulatrix being smaller. Eulodrobia differs from Springvalia in having a tight U-shaped renal oviduct arch that lies in front of the bursa, which is usually larger and more globular in Eulodrobia.
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
Perez, K. E., Ponder, W. F., Colgan, D. J., Clark, S. A. & Lydeard, C. (2005). Molecular phylogeny and biogeography of Spring-associated hydrobiid snails of the Great Artesian Basin, Australia. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 34: 545-556.
Ponder, W. (2019). Tateidae Thiele, 1925. Pp. 134-138 in C. Lydeard & Cummings, K. S. Freshwater Mollusks of the World: a Distribution Atlas. Baltimore, John Hopkins University Press.
Ponder, W. F. & Clark, G. A. (1990). A radiation of hydrobiid snails in threatened artesian springs in western Queensland. Records of the Australian Museum 42: 301-363.
Ponder, W. F., Zhang, W. -H., Hallan, A., & Shea, M. E. (2019). New taxa of Tateidae (Caenogastropoda, Truncatelloidea) from springs associated with the Great Artesian Basin and Einasleigh Uplands, Queensland, with the description of two related taxa from eastern coastal drainages. Zootaxa 4583(1): 1-67.
