Jonathan Ablett

Natural History Museum, London · Department of Life Sciences

In 2004 the Natural History Museum, London (NHM) acquired an 8.62m long specimen of the giant squid Architeuthis dux Steenstrup, 1857. Complete giant squid are rare in museum collections and the chance to obtain a live-caught specimen with the potential for molecular analysis was an amazing opportunity. Also it was, and still is, the largest fluid...

The type status is described of 404 taxa classified within the family Bulimulidae (superfamily Orthalicoidea) and kept in the London museum. Lectotypes are designated for Bulimus aurifluus Pfeiffer, 1857; Otostomus bartletti H. Adams, 1867; Helix cactorum d’Orbigny, 1835; Bulimus caliginosus Reeve, 1849; Bulimus chemnitzioides Forbes, 1850; Bulimus...

The Clausiliidae species of India, Myanmar, Pakistan and Sri Lanka are mostly endemic and among the least stud�ied representatives of their family. Almost all of the available material of these taxa was collected before 1920 and is housed in the Natural History Museum, London. The present overview of this collection provides information on the orig...

This comprehensive checklist of non-marine molluscs from the mainland of Ecuador pre- sents data on 331 species (of which 5 are considered as nomen dubium), compiled from the literature, a subset of museum databases, and some verified observations from the internet. For all taxa the original reference is given and photographs of type specimens are...

Additions and corrections are presented to update the book on Pierre Marie Arthur Morelet, which was published in 2018. The main corrections are related to the new molluscan taxa introduced by him, with consequences for the indices. Recent literature that provoked these corrections is listed.

We critically examine Peruvian taxa belonging to the genera Drymaeus Albers, 1850 and Mesembrinus Albers, 1850, verify their original reference, and figure type materials, if located in and available from museums. We include additional photographs of non-type material when they are deemed useful to show variation. Original figures from the literatu...

Two new species, namely Gastroptychia geoffreyi sp. nov. and Gastroptychia collicola sp. nov., are described respectively from Darjeeling and West Khasi Hills, northeastern India based on historical collections at the Natural History Museum, London. Gastroptychia collicola sp. nov. is distinguished from sympatric species by the presence of a unique...

The taxonomy of subulinid snails in Myanmar has been evaluated, resulting in the recognition of 40 species and subspecies across nine genera: Allopeas, Bacillum, Curvella, Glessula, Opeas, Paropeas, Rishetia, Tortaxis, and Zootecus. Nine species are re-described based on recently collected specimens, and two new species, Glessula mandalayensis Man...

Type material of some South American species in the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin, belonging to different families is documented. It includes 16 species: Bulimus cuneus L. Pfeiffer, 1854, Bulimus proteus Broderip, 1832, Bulimus scalarioides L. Pfeiffer, 1867, Bulimus similaris J. Moricand, 1856, Andinia (Ehrmanniella) dedicata Weyrauch & Zilch, 1954...

Recently a number of previously unrecognised type specimens representing 8 taxa were found in the general collection of the Natural History Museum, belonging to the Orthalicoidea. We have documented this material in this publication, as a supplement to previous papers published in 2011, 2012, 2014 and 2015. A corrected taxon index to all publicatio...

Available possible type specimens of Macaronesian land snails describd by R. T. Lowe

See the abstract—which is available as one of the two full-texts— for more info about the book. Online PDF available via the project page (https://tinyurl.com/2p8kvyjc), where also the password can be found to open the file. A print-on-demand hard copy version is available via https://tinyurl.com/2dwzxfuk.

We present a genome assembly from an individual Anisus vortex (the Whirlpool Ramshorn snail; Mollusca; Gastropoda; Hygrophila; Lymnaeoidea ; Planorbidae). The genome sequence is 869.5 megabases in span. Most of the assembly is scaffolded into 18 chromosomal pseudomolecules. The mitochondrial genome has also been assembled and is 13.57 kilobases in...

The Frenchman Joseph Charles Hippolyte Crosse was educated as lawyer but dedicated his whole life to malacology. He joined the editorial board of the Journal de Conchyliologie in 1861, and was managing director of the journal until his death in 1898. His biography gives details about his childhood, family, and professional life. His bibliography li...

The name of a well-known Miocene land snail species, Helix incrassata Klein, 1853 (May) (currently Pseudochloritis incrassata) is not a junior primary homonym of the name Helix incrassata Reeve, 1853 (February), because the latter is unavailable as it is a subsequent erroneous spelling of the name Helix incrustata Poey, 1852 (currently Thysanophora...

Chloritis delibrata (Benson, 1836), known from northeastern India, was believed to have three varietal forms, sometimes mentioned as subspecies: C. delibrata var. khasiensis (Nevill, 1877) and C. delibrata var. fasciata (Godwin-Austen, 1875) from the Khasi Hills, India, and C. delibrata var. procumbens (Gould, 1844) from Dawei in Myanmar. The repro...

The rediscovery in the Copenhagen museum of type material of Buccinum zebra O.F. Müller, 1774 enables us to resolve its status after more than two centuries, with the designation of a lectotype. It confirms the earlier suggestion of Rehder that this taxon is identical to Orthalicus maracaibensis L. Pfeif­fer, 1856, which thus becomes a junior subje...

The type series boundary and the name-bearing type designation of each cyclophorid taxon originally described by Godwin-Austen are clarified based on an interpretation that complies with the ICZN. Previ- ous statuses of type specimens designated by previous authors are reconsidered. Lectotypes of Spiraculum oakesi Godwin-Austen, 1915, Spiraculum...

A joint expedition between the Natural History Museum, London and Vietnamese colleagues discovered living populations of the charismatic tree snail, Amphidromus (Amphidromus) cambojiensis (Reeve, 1860 Reeve L. 1860. On two new species of shells from Cambojia. Ann Mag Nat Hist, Ser 3. 6:203–204. doi:10.1080/00222936008697308.[Taylor & Francis Online...

Shallow-water marine invertebrate fauna is diverse in tropical latitudes but generally poorly known. This is in part due the remoteness of many of these regions, and a lack of locally trained taxonomists. In such cases, the ethnoknowledge (i.e., information acquired from the sociocultural references of a given social group) of traditional human pop...

Planktonic stages of benthic octopuses can reach relatively large sizes in some species, usually in oceanic, epipelagic waters while living as part of the macroplankton. These young octopuses appear to delay settlement on the seabed for an undetermined period of time that is probably longer than for those octopus paralarvae living in coastal, nerit...

The taxonomic position and the publication dates of both Achatina lamellata Potiez & Michaud, 1835 and Helix unilamellata d’Orbigny, 1835 are discussed. The dispute concerning the correct publication date of Potiez & Michaud is analysed and a collation of their Atlas is compared to the sheets of their main text, leading to the most likely scenario...

412 species-group names (including 11 replacement names), and 14 genus-group names of the Alycaeidae have been introduced to date. Type materials of 85% (336) of the known species and subspecies were examined, a further 5% (19) of the taxa were studied using available non-type material, and for another 6% (22) the original descriptions were suffici...

A small collection containing thirty-nine lots of South African Streptaxidae land snails is housed in the collection of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa (NMNZ). This material previously belonged to British/South African malacologist Henry C. Burnup, who either donated it to, or exchanged it with New Zealand-based Swiss malacologist Henry...

Computed tomography (CT) scanning allows for accurate 3D imaging of specimens and their internal structures in a non-invasive, non-destructive manner, which is particularly important for precious specimens, i.e. type specimens or for rare or difficult sample specimens such as cirrate octopods. When successful, micro-CT scans of specimens allow for...

The malacological contributions of Carl Georg Ludwig Pfeiffer (1805–1877): a bibliography, with a collation of the publication dates of the Malakozoologische Blätter.

Sexual dimorphism is a common feature among many gonocho-ristic animal taxa. Particular characters, such as size, colour andshape, may vary between males and females, and these differencesmay evolve as the result of sex-restricted optimization of traits in-volved in mate choice and reproduction. However, while explana-tions are often readily availa...

Vampyroteuthis infernalis Chun, 1903, is a widely distributed deepwater cephalopod with unique morphology and phylogenetic position. We assessed its habitat and trophic ecology on a global scale via stable isotope analyses of a unique collection of beaks from 104 specimens from the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Cephalopods typically are acti...

Details are provided on 124 land snail species and varieties from New Zealand, and a further 14 species putatively from New Zealand, all of which were described by European and North American taxonomists between 1830 and 1934, based on specimens collected between 1824 and 1924. Primary type material of 95 of these taxa was located in Northern Hemis...

Details are provided on 124 land snail species and varieties from New Zealand, and a further 14 species putatively from New Zealand, all of which were described by European and North American taxonomists between 1830 and 1934, based on specimens collected between 1824 and 1924. Primary type material of 95 of these taxa was located in Northern Hemis...

Since the time of the original description there have been no precise locality records in Cambodia of Bertia cambojiensis (Reeve, 1860) and it was believed to be extinct. In 2012, a joint Natural History Museum survey with Vietnamese colleagues rediscovered living populations of this huge sinistral helicoid snail in a protected area of southern Vie...

Limestone karsts can form terrestrial habitat islands for calcium-dependent organisms. In Vietnam, many karst habitats are threatened, while their rich biodiversity is still far from being thoroughly explored. Given that conservation of karst biota strongly relies on correct species identification, the presence of undetected cryptic species can pos...

The collection of the seven cyclophorid snail genera housed in the Natural History Museum, London (NHM), includes 95 available species-level names belonging to the genera Pterocyclos Benson, 1832, Cyclotus Swainson, 1840, Myxostoma Troschel, 1847, Rhiostoma Benson, 1860, Scabrina Blanford, 1863, Crossopoma Martens, 1891, and Pearsonia Kobelt, 1902....