120 Years in 120 Objects

Join the KwaZulu-Natal Museum in celebrating the museum’s 120^th year of orbiting the sun. Staff and guest curators have chosen one object or item per year of our existence to highlight to the public. Visit the website and our social media platforms regularly to see the latest object and keep an eye out for information about a physical exhibition later this year!

Today’s Object is from 1912

Tiny shells of Afrodonta inhluzaniensis (Burnup, 1912) by Igor Muratov, Curator of Mollusca

There is often an interesting story behind a shell of a mollusc.

The first curator of our collection, Henry Clifden Burnup (1852–1928) sent many shells to other malacologists (besides publishing eight papers on land snails himself) who described new taxa based on that material. In particular, he collected a tiny (0.84×1.48 mm) shell at Dargle, Edendale Falls on June 29, 1907 and sent it to James Cosmo Melvill (1845–1929) and John Henry Ponsonby (1848–1916). The following year they described it as a new genus and a new species: Afrodonta bilamellaris Melvill & Ponsonby, 1908 that was designated as a type species of their new genus on the next page of the same journal by Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Haversham Godwin-Austen (1834–1923).

Four years later, Burnup (1912) published an article with the revision of Afrodonta Melvill & Ponsonby, 1908 and described three new species of that genus. Although all the holotypes* of these three species are in London, our collection has three paratypes** of Afrodonta inhluzaniensis (Burnup, 1912) from Inhluzani Mountain (Dargle area, Nhlosane) that Burnup mentioned in the original description. The shells of this species are approximately the same size (0.86×1.44 mm) as A. bilamellaris, but differ from it by the position of apertural lamellae (see the illustrations).

 

Top row: the shell (diameter 1.45 mm) of Afrodonta bilamellaris Melvill & Ponsonby, 1908 in KZNM collection (after Herbert 2020: 6, Fig. 1 A–C). Middle row: the original illustrations of the holotype (0.86×1.44 mm) of A. inhluzaniensis (Burnup, 1912: PL. XXIV, figs 14, 15, 17). Bottom row: the shell (diameter 1.42 mm) of A. inhluzaniensis in KZNM collection (after Herbert 2020: 12, Fig. 4 A–C).

 

* A holotype is the specimen on which an original description is based.

** Paratypes are specimens from the same series as a holotype.

 

References

Burnup H.C. 1912. On Afrodonta Melv. and Pons., with descriptions of new species. Annals of the Natal Museum 2(3): 333–343. PL. XXIV, figs 14–17.

Godwin-Austen H.H. 1908. Notes in the anatomy of Afrodonta M. & P.: Type A. bilamellaris, M. & P. In Melvill & Ponsonby, 1908. Descriptions of nine terrestrial Mollusca from South Africa. Including anatomical descriptions of two new genera (Afrodonta, M. & P., and Peltatus, G.-A.) by Lt.-Col. H.H. Godwin-Austen, F.R.S. The Annals and Magazine of Natural History. Series 8, 1(2): 135.

Herbert D.G. 2020. Revision of the aperturally dentate Charopidae (Gastropoda: Stylommatophora) of southern Africa – genus Afrodonta s. lat., with description of five new genera, twelve new species and one new subspecies. European Journal of Taxonomy: 629: 1–55. https://doi.org/10.5852/ejt.2020.629

Melvill J.C. & Ponsonby J.H. 1908. Descriptions of nine terrestrial Mollusca from South Africa. Including anatomical descriptions of two new genera (Afrodonta, M. & P., and Peltatus, G.-A.) by Lt.-Col. H.H. Godwin-Austen, F.R.S. The Annals and Magazine of Natural History. Series 8, 1(2): 129–136.