A Field Guide to the Snails of Lord Howe Island

131 Paralaoma morti (Cox, 1864) Mort’s Pinhead Snail Shell. Size: H = 1.0-1.3 mm, D = 1.7-2.4 mm. Colour: Golden brown. Shape: Depressedly turbinate with a low spire; sutures impressed; whorls rounded, slightly shouldered in immature specimens; last whorl descending rapidly. Sculpture: Protoconch with coarse spiral lirae; teleoconch with distinct, widely spaced radial ribs and microsculpture of fine radials and spirals. Aperture: Roundly lunate. Umbilicus: Widely open. Animal. Not known. Key distinguishing features. Coarse spiral lirae on protoconch; wider umbilicus than congeners. Habitat and occurrence. Common and widespread over the whole island. Remarks. This species has been previously identified as Paralaoma caputspinulae (Smith, 1992; Stanisic et al. , 2010), a junior synonym of widespread species Paralaoma servile (Falkner et al. , 2002), which was first described from the Canary Isles and has a worldwide distribution. However, the eastern Australian form has been shown to be Australian endemic P. morti (Stanisic et al. , 2018), with only a single confirmed Australian record of P. servile from Hobart. The Lord Howe Island species is also likely to be P. morti , although this remains to be confirmed. Banyan Fig, Clear Place. Image I. Burghardt.