Shell. Broadly ovate conic to pupiform, minute to small (between about 1.6 and 3.5 mm in maximum length). Periostracum thin, colourless to yellow.
Teleoconch of 2.3-4.0 lightly convex whorls. Teleoconch sculpture of faint, prosocline growth lines; periphery of last whorl evenly rounded. Aperture ovate, inner lip thin and narrow externally, thickened internally, partially to completely separated from parietal wall, weak columellar swelling present or absent; outer lip slightly thickened. Umbilicus closed and usually represented by chink. There is no pallial tentacle. A small posterior caecum on the stomach may be present.
The shells are smaller than most other taxa in the Beddomeia group; diverse in shape, characterised by a thickened columella which may bear a weak bulge, and the inner lip is more distinctly separated from the parietal wall than in most other members of the Beddomeia group. In addition, the outer lip is slightly thickened. This genus is separated from Beddomeia anatomically because it has the bursal characters of Phrantela, as well as the rather thin, somewhat tapering capsule gland also seen in that genus. It differs from Phrantela in having the coiled oviduct embedded in well-developed connective tissue and some other anatomical characters.
Victodrobia Ponder & Clark, 1993
Class Gastropoda
Infraclass Caenogastropoda
Order Littorinida
Suborder Rissoidina
Superfamily Truncatelloidea
Family Tateidae
Genus Victodrobia Ponder & Clark, 1993
Type species: Victodrobia burni Ponder & Clark, 1993
Original reference: 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: Tarra National Park, Victoria.
In small streams, springs, trickles and seepages. Under or on leaves, on mud.
Eastern Victoria - the Great Dividing Range, Dandenong Ranges and Strzelecki Ranges.
Several undescribed species are known in this genus from eastern Victoria on the Great Dividing Range and Dandenong Ranges.
Recent work by Wilke et al. (2013) revealed that this genus, like Beddomeia and Phrantela, may not in fact belong to the Tateidae.
Beesley, P. L., Ross, G. J. B. & Wells, A., Eds. (1998). Mollusca: The Southern Synthesis. Parts A & B. Melbourne, CSIRO Publishing.
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., 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.
Wilke, T., Haase, M., Hershler, R., Liu, H.-P., Misof, B. & Ponder, W. (2013). Pushing short DNA fragments to the limit: Phylogenetic relationships of 'hydrobioid' gastropods (Caenogastropoda: Rissooidea). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 66: 715-736.
