Notes on Kenya Land and Freshwater Snails. 6. The Genus Afropunctum Haas in Kenya and Uganda

Several years ago Mr. C. F. HEMMING of the Desert Locust Survey, Nairobi, Kenya, handed over to me for identification, a considerable number of small, rather worn shells which he had collected in the flood drift of the River Turkwell, in the Turkana Province of Kenya. Amongst this material were three specimens of a small depressed helicoid shell, about 2 mm wide and 1.5 mm tall; whorls 4¼. There are close transverse striae above which anastomose in places and also, very characteristically, extend over the periphery and on to the base for a short way; the main ornamentation on the base consists of spiral striae. The family was uncertain but since there was a general resemblance to Punctum and Trachycystis, I provisionally referred the shells to the Endodontidae. A single fresh specimen was later collected in dead wood on the 23rd. February, 1955 by Mr. W. WILKINSON in Uganda, West Nile District, near Rhino Camp. This shell showed the typical sculpture very clearly and was medium brownish horncoloured. It has about a half a whorl less than the HEMMING shells. Of the described snails from Tropical Africa only two descriptions seemed to fit this little shell. Firstly Afropunctum mermodi Haas described from the Katanga, Belgian Congo [HAAS in Zool. Anz. vol. 107, p. 221—222, fig. 1 (1934)] and secondly Sitala kigomaensis Germain described from Kigoma in Tanganyika Territory [GERMAIN in Bull. Mus. Hist. Nat. Paris vol. for 1919, p. 351, fig. 32, 33 (1919)]. When visiting Paris in 1959 I searched for the type of this species but was unable to find it. The types of HAAS’ species are preserved at Geneva and I sent the material to Dr. E. BINDER. He reports (in litt., 16 Sept. 1959) that the Rhino Camp specimen corresponds exactly with Afropunctum mermodi Haas and that the Turkana specimens are also that species but slightly larger. For the present I am therefore using that name but if comparisons with the type or topotypes of GERMAIN’s species indicate that it is conspecific, then his specific name will have to be used since it is much the older. The specimens mentioned are preserved in the collections of the Coryndon Museum, Nairobi.