Abstract

The littorinine gastropods of the temperate southern continents were formerly classified together with tropical species in the large genus Nodilittorina. Recently, molecular data have shown that they belong in three distinct genera, Austrolittorina, Afrolittorina and Nodilittorina, whereas the tropical species are members of a fourth genus, Echinolittorina. Austrolittorina contains 5 species: A. unifasciata in Australia, A. antipodum and A. cincta in New Zealand, and A. fernandezensis and A. araucana in western South America. Afrolittorina contains 4 species: A. africana and A. knysnaensis in southern Africa, and A. praetermissa and A. acutispira in Australia. Nodilittorina is monotypic, containing only the Australian N. pyramidalis. This paper presents the first detailed morphological descriptions of the African and Australasian species of these three southern genera (the eastern Pacific species have been described elsewhere). The species-level taxonomy of several of these has been confused in the past; Afrolittorina africana and A. knysnaensis are here distinguished as separate taxa; Austrolittorina antipodum is a distinct species and not a subspecies of A. unifasciata; Nodilittorina pyramidalis is separated from the tropical Echinolittorina trochoides with similar shell characters. In addition to descriptions of shells, radulae and reproductive anatomy, distribution maps are given, and the ecological literature reviewed.

 
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Bibliographic Data

Short Form
Reid and Williams, 2004, Rec. Aust. Mus. 56(1): 75–122
Author
David G. Reid; Suzanne T. Williams
Year
2004
Title
The subfamily Littorininae (Gastropoda: Littorinidae) in the temperate Southern Hemisphere: the genera Nodilittorina, Austrolittorina and Afrolittorina
Serial Title
Records of the Australian Museum
Volume
56
Issue
1
Start Page
75
End Page
122
DOI
10.3853/j.0067-1975.56.2004.1393
Language
en
Date Published
07 April 2004
Cover Date
07 April 2004
ISSN (print)
0067-1975
CODEN
RAUMAJ
Publisher
The Australian Museum
Place Published
Sydney, Australia
Subjects
MOLLUSCA: GASTROPODA; TAXONOMY
Digitized
07 April 2004
Available Online
07 April 2004
Reference Number
1393
EndNote
1393.enw
Title Page
1393.pdf
File size: 13kB
Complete Work
1393_complete.pdf
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