The types of Neotropical Helicinidae (Mollusca, Gastropoda, Neritopsina) in the Malacological Collection of the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin: an annotated catalogue, with emphasis on Cuban land snails

Abstract

Although the malacological collection of the Natural History Museum Berlin (ZMB) was long assumed to be lost it houses a rich collection of types of the operculate land snail family Helicinidae. With types of 98 neotropical nominal taxa and of a significant amount of other material and taxa from elsewhere the ZMB collection it actually among the most important holdings of Helicinidae worldwide. Here we present a comprehensive list of all types from the Neotropics mainly from the collection of and originally described by Ludwig (”Louis”) Pfeiffer (1805–1877), who essentially used material collected by Johann Gundlach (1810–1896) on Cuba, as well as material described by Antoni Wagner (1860–1928), with some additions from other malacologists such as Eduard von Martens (1831–1904) and Felipe Poey (1796–1891). Following an account of the general history of the helicinid collection housed today in the ZMB, including brief accounts on the biographical background of its collectors and contributors, the present annotated catalogue discusses the nomenclature, taxonomy and history of the specimens, including type locality, type material and its status. The majority of taxa represented in the ZMB was named by Ludwig Pfeiffer (a total of 38 taxa) and Antoni Wagner (26 taxa). Since these two main authors of taxa represented in the ZMB collection were the world specialists for Helicinidae at their time, the collection of types does not have any specific focus either on certain systematic groups or areas of distribution, with the exception that rich material is present from Cuba due to the considerable amount of material once received from Johann Gundlach. (© 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)