The shell of this species has five brown spiral bands of which three are more distinct than the others.
Taiwanassiminea cf. bedaliensis (Rensch, 1934)
Class Gastropoda
Infraclass Caenogastropoda
Order Littorinida
Suborder Rissoidina
Superfamily Truncatelloidea
Family Assimineidae
Subfamily: Assimineinae
Genus Taiwanassiminea Kuroda & Habe, 1950
Original name: Assiminea bedaliensis Rensch, 1934. In Rensch, B. C. E. (1934). Süßwassermollusken der Deutschen Limnologischen Sunda-Expedition. Archiv für Hydrobiologie 13: 203-254.
Type locality: Java, Indonesia.
The status of the Australian records needs investigation.
Habitat in Java: in fresh water, near waterfalls, on stones, sometimes above the water (van Benthem Jutting 1956). Inhabits ditches with running water (Brandt 1974).
Java, Indonesia; Borneo and Sabah, Malaysia; Guam; Japan (Honshu, Nansei-shoto); Thailand; United States (Hawaiian Is.), Israel. In Australia it is only known from the Douglas River, Northern Territory.
Taiwanassiminea bedaliensis was described from Java and also occurs in Borneo and Sabah, Malaysia. It is associated with the horticultural trade and has been introduced to Japan and Guam. It was first recorded in Hawaii in 2004, where it is almost entirely confined to horticultural facilities, but these are now thought to be misidentified specimens of another assimineid species of the genus Cyclotropis. It has also recently been reported as introduced in Israel (Mienis et al. 2015).
It is currently not known whether this species is native to northern Australia (it is only known from the Daly River, Northern Territory) or introduced. However, some morphological evidence, such as the larger shells and the apparent lack of a subsutural groove of the Australian specimens, suggests that the Australian population may be native, possibly even a distinct species.
Benthem Jutting, W. S. S., van (1956). Systematic studies on the non-marine Mollusca of the Indo-Australian archipeligo. 5: Critical revision of the Javanese freshwater gastropods. Treubia 23: 259-477.
Brandt, R. A. M. (1974). The non-marine aquatic Mollusca of Thailand. Archiv Für Molluskenkunde 105: 1-423.
Cowie, R. H., Hayes, K. A., Tran, C. T. & Meyer III, W. M. (2008). The horticultural industry as a vector of alien snails and slugs: widespread invasions in Hawaii. International Journal of Pest Management 54: 267-276.
Fukuda, H. & Ponder, W. F. (2003). Australian freshwater assimineids, with a synopsis of the Recent genus-group taxa of the Assimineidae (Mollusca: Caenogastropoda: Rissooidea). Journal of Natural History 37: 1977-2032.
Fukuda, H., Ponder, W. F. & Hallan, A. (2015). Anatomy, relationships and distribution of Taiwanassiminea affinis (Böttger)(Caenogastropoda: Assimineidae), with a reassessment of Cyclotropis Tapparone-Canefri. Molluscan Research 35: 24-36.
Hallan, A. & Fukuda, H. (2015). Taiwanassiminea phantasma n. sp.: a terrestrial assimineid (Caenogastropoda: Truncatelloidea) from Middle Osborn Island, Kimberley, Western Australia. Molluscan Research 35: 112-122.
Hayes, K., Tran, C. & Cowie, R. (2007). New records of alien Mollusca in the Hawaiian Islands: nonmarine snails and slugs (Gastropoda) associated with the horticultural trade. Bishop Museum Occasional Papers: Records of the Hawaii Biological Survey for 2006 (Part 2: Notes) 96: 54-63.
Köhler, F. and Rintelen, T. 2011. Cyclotropis bedaliensis. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2011: e.T188889A8658199. http://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2011-2.RLTS.T188889A8658199.en. Downloaded on 12 September 2016.
Mienis, H. K., Vaisman, S. & Rittner, O. (2015). The discovery of Taiwanassiminea bedaliensis in Israel (Mollusca, Gastropoda, Assimineidae). Triton, 31: 12-15.
Ng, T.H., Tan, S.K., Wong, W.H., Meier, R., Chan, S-Y., Tan, H.H. and Yeo, D.C.J. 2016. Molluscs for sale: Assessment of freshwater gastropods and bivalves in the ornamental pet trade. PLOS One. DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0161130.
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.
