Powelliphanta

>The generic name was given in honour of New Zealand's malacologist Arthur William Baden Powell, and derived from the genus's similarity to Paryphanta.

Powelliphanta was originally described by A. C. O'Connor in 1945 as a subgenus of Paryphanta.

Genus PARYPHANTA Albers, 1850.
Sub-genus POWELLIPHANTA nov.

Shell generally, similar to Paryphanta Albers, but with the last whorl pulled in closer to the preceding whorl, and with a colour pattern of concentric or radially arranged bands, usually of alternating and contrasting colours. More important is the paucity of lime compared with conchin in the shell.

Egg always with cuticle, pale buff when laid.

Distribution: North Island of New Zealand, in and south of the Ruahine Range (possibly once as far north as East Cape) and South Island.

Type: Helix hochstetteri Pfeiffer, Mal. Bl., viii, 146, 1862 (see PI. 6, Figs. 5–8).

Powelliphanta will include all New Zealand species previously included in Paryphanta except the type of that genus, P. busbyi (Gray, 1840) which is confined to the North Auckland Peninsula.

(For list, see Powell, 1938, pp. 140, 141.)

The sub-genus is named in recognition of the great service rendered to the study of the family by Mr A. W. B. Powell.

There are 21 species and 51 subspecies within the genus. The relationship between the species is complex, and it has been suggested that the group Powelliphanta gilliesi-traversi-hochstetteri-rossiana-lignaria-superba forms a ring species.

In November 2003 a subspecies, thought to be extinct, was rediscovered alive on the West Coast; it had last been documented on the basis of shell fragments in 1934.

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