Victodrobia Ponder & Clark, 1993

Diagnostic features

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.

Classification

Victodrobia Ponder & Clark, 1993

Class Gastropoda

Infraclass Caenogastropoda

Order Littorinida

Suborder Rissoidina

Superfamily Truncatelloidea

Family Beddomeiidae

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.

Biology and ecology

In small streams, springs, trickles and seepages. Under or on leaves, on mud.

Distribution

Eastern Victoria - the Great Dividing Range, Dandenong Ranges and Strzelecki Ranges.

Notes

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.

Wilke et al. (2013) revealed that this genus, like Phrantela and Victodrobia,  are not closely related to Tateidae. Recently Ponder et. al. (2023) recognised these three genera as a separate family, Beddomeiidae.

Further reading

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.

Ponder, W. F., Nimbs, M. J. & Shea, M. E. (2023). Hyporheic Tateidae (Gastropoda: Truncatelloidea) from the Flinders Ranges, South Australia and Judbarra (Gregory) National Park, western Northern Territory, Australia, with some taxonomic notes on the family. Molluscan Research 44: 63-83.

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.