Helix glabriuscula Pfeiffer, 1853

Pl. 8, fig. E; Pl. 14, fig. I

Pfeiffer, 1853d. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, pt. 19: 262.

Type material: Syntypes, NHMUK 20141113 /1–4 (4), NHMUK 20040908 (4) (dry shell material); ex Museum Cuming (Acc. no. 1829).

Label details: ‘N. Zealand’; ‘n.sp. glabriuscula Pfr. ’—in Pfeiffer’s handwriting.

Type locality: ‘Nova Seelandia’ (Pfeiffer, 1853d: 262).

Previous illustrations of type material: Reeve (1852 [in 1851–1854]: pl. 133, fig. 822), Pfeiffer (1853 [in 1852–1860]: pl. 156, figs. 14–16), Tryon (1887 [from Reeve 1852]: pl. 21, fig. 14).

Remarks: Helix glabriuscula Reeve, 1852 and H. glabriuscula Pfeiffer, 1853, are based on the same type material, which H. Cuming had obtained from the Australian-based naturalist Frederick Strange. Pfeiffer evidently intended to publish the original description of this species in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London issue for 1851 (see Reeve 1852 [in 1851–1854]: species 822; Pfeiffer 1853a: 51, 1854 [in 1852–1860]: 470), but publication was delayed until 1853 (Pfeiffer 1853d: 262), and was pre-empted by Reeve (1852 [in 1851–1854]: species 822) [note that the publication date of ‘ October 1851 ’ listed for plate 133 of Reeve (1851 –1854) is presumed to be an error, as the immediately preceding and following plates were dated ‘ October 1852 ’ (see Petit 2007: table 3)]. Authorship of this species has generally been attributed to Pfeiffer (e.g., Hector 1873: 6; Hutton 1880: 23; Suter 1913b: 729; Powell 1979: 328; Spencer et al. 2009: 217), but Reeve (1852) has priority.

Taxonomy: Helix glabriuscula Pfeiffer, 1853 is a junior primary homonym and an objective junior synonym of Phrixgnathus glabriusculus (Reeve, 1852) N. syn.