<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <head> <title>Fastosarion ephelis Hyman & Köhler 2019, sp. nov.</title> <meta content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" http-equiv="content-type"/> </head> <body> <h2> <i>Fastosarion ephelis</i> sp. nov.</h2> <p>Figs. 18, 19C, 20E, 23D–E</p> <p>Helicarionidae MQ 16: Stanisic, 2018: figs. 4E, 6D.</p> <p> Etymology From <i>ephelis</i> (Greek, meaning freckle), referring to the speckled appearance of the animal; noun in apposition; noun in apposition.</p> <p>Material examined</p> <p> <i>Types</i>: Holotype: QM MO85835 (Broken River, Eungella NP, MEQ, coll. Apr 1996, J. Leroi).</p> <p>Paratypes: QM MO58082 (same data as holotype).</p> <p> <i>Non-type material:</i> See table 1.</p> <p>Diagnosis</p> <p> <i>External morphology</i>: Shell (fig. 19C) medium-sized (14.2 mm), amber, darkening along aperture, 3.2 whorls, globose, flattened, thin, last whorl very large. Body (fig. 20E) at least 25 mm long, pale orange-brown speckled with cream, head and sole paler, outer field of sole slightly darker than inner fields. Mantle lobes and shell lappets large, pale brown, smooth, very finely speckled. Tail not keeled, slime grooves weak.</p> <p> <i>Genital anatomy:</i> Genitalia (fig. 23D–E) moderately long; bursa copulatrix of moderate length, duct distinct, bursa oval. Penis long, cylindrical, internally with one ridged longitudinal pilaster, inner penial wall sculptured with rather large, diamond-shaped pustules; 80% of penis contained in penial tunica. Epiphallus approx. 1.5 times penis length; entering penis through a short verge; epiphallus arms equal in length; epiphallic caecum of moderate length; flagellum of moderate length, slender.</p> <p>Remarks</p> <p> This species was previously identified through curatorial work as Helicarionidae MQ 16. Despite frequent collecting in the Eungella region, <i>F. ephelis</i> is only known from two lots of material from Eungella NP (fig. 18). It seems likely that this species is much rarer than other semislugs from the same area, including <i>F. comerfordae</i>, <i>F. aquavitae</i> and <i>F. mcdonaldi</i>. It can be distinguished from all of these by its intermediate size (smaller than the first two and larger than the latter). <i>Fastosarion comerfordae</i> and <i>F. aquavitae</i> have a more robust, globose shell, while <i>F. mcdonaldi</i> has a much thinner, more reduced shell. Moreover, this species is easily distinguished by its pale, speckled appearance.</p> </body> </html>