Limnaea tenella Hutton, R. Heathcote 1884
Creators: name: Brook, Fred J.
name: Kennedy, Martyn
name: King, Tania M.
name: Ridden, Johnathon
name: Shaw, Matthew D.
name: Spencer, Hamish G.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2020
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Mollusca
Gastropoda
Lymnaeidae
Limnaea
Limnaea tenella

description: Limnaea tenella Hutton, 1884
Pl. 1, fig. L
Hutton, 1884. New Zealand Journal of Science, 2: 175.
Type material. Syntypes, CMNZ M359 (1), CMNZ M6051 (2), NMNZ M.125546 [ex Suter colln.] (2) (dry shells). The molluscan collection at CMNZ has radula fragments mounted on a glass slide with the label details ‘ Limnaea tenella, Christchurch, XVII p. 55’—in Hutton’s handwriting (i.e., CMNZ 2017.17.149), which are probably primary type material (see description of radula by Hutton 1885c: 56).
Label details. CMNZ M359 —‘18. Limnaea tenella Hutton, R. Heathcote, Christchurch’, pillbox label in Hutton’s handwriting; NMNZ M.125546—‘ Limnaea tenella Hutton, Syntype, Heathcote Riv, Hu. ’, in H. Suter’s handwriting.
Type locality. ‘Christchurch’ (Hutton 1884h: 175); ’River Heathcote, Christchurch’ (Hutton 1885c: 56).
Previous illustrations of type material. Hutton (1885c: pl. xii, figs. 4, 11—shell and radula).
Remarks. Hutton submitted a description of this species to the Transactions and Proceedings of the New Zealand Institute issue for 1884, but publication was delayed until May 1885 (Hutton 1885c: 55), and was pre-empted by a brief description in an account of a meeting of the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury (Hutton 1884h: 175). Hubendick (1951: 171, 179, 200) treated Limnaea pucilla Hutton, 1884 and Limnaea alfredi Suter, 1890, which was based on shells from Hooker Valley, Canterbury, as synonyms of Limnaea tenella Hutton, 1884, and noted that the shells of this taxon were similar to those of the European species Galba truncatula (Müller, 1774), albeit with a less elevated spire. However, according to Dell (1956: 73), L. tenella is based on juvenile shells of Lymnaea stagnalis (Linnaeus, 1758). Hutton (1882h: 157) had earlier noted that the latter species had been “introduced intentionally into the river Avon at Christchurch, and is now abundant at the Acclimatization Gardens”. According to Thomson (1922: 259), L. stagnalis was originally introduced to the Avon “from England in 1864, by Mr A.M. Johnson of Opawa [Christchurch], who brought them out as food for the fish he was endeavouring to introduce”. Dell (1956: 73) noted that L. stagnalis was “widely distributed in sluggish streams and particularly in lakes throughout New Zealand ”. Pullan et al (1972: 397, figs. 1a, 1b) indicated that it had a sparse distribution in the North and South islands, in lakes, ponds, man-made dams and slow-flowing streams. Lymnaea stagnalis is native to Eurasia, the western part of North Africa, and central and western North America, and has a wide adventive distribution that includes Australia and New Zealand (Hubendick 1951: 118, fig. 301; Welter-Schultes 2012: 50).
Current taxonomy. A junior synonym of Lymnaea stagnalis (Linnaeus, 1758), according to Dell (1956: 73).
Infraclass Pulmonata
Order Stylommatophora
Family ATHORACOPHORIDAE P. Fischer, 1883
description: Published as part of Brook, Fred J., Kennedy, Martyn, King, Tania M., Ridden, Johnathon, Shaw, Matthew D. & Spencer, Hamish G., 2020, Catalogue of New Zealand land, freshwater and estuarine molluscan taxa named by Frederick Wollaston Hutton between 1879 and 1904, pp. 1-73 in Zootaxa 4865 (1) on pages 18-19, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4865.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/4428428