Notes on some interesting species of Mollusca Gastropoda of the Monterosato collection from the Museum of Paleontology (Catania University, Italy)

Received 12.07.2018; accepted 10.09.2018; published online 28.12.2019 Proceedings of the 4th International Congress on Biodiversity “Man, Natural Habitats and Euro-Mediterranean Biodiversity”, November 17th-19th, 2017 Malta In the year 2008, the then named Department of Geological Sciences of the University of Catania came into possession of malacological material belonging to Tommaso Di Maria, baron of Allery and marquis of Monterosato (Palermo, 1841–1927), an important malacologist specialized in the systematics of continental and mostly marine and fossil molluscs from the Mediterranean Sea and north east Atlantic. The small collection also includes interesting lots of shells belonging to other Sicilian naturalists such as the abbot Giuseppe Brugnone (Caltanissetta, Italy) and Pietro Calcara (Palermo, Italy). In this malacological collection, some interesting taxa little known and difficult taxonomic interpretations have been found. The rediscovery of the Aghatina mandralisci Calcara, 1840 and Lachesis retifera Brugnone, 1880 probable lectotypes, and the taxonomy of Helix schwerzenbachi Calcara, 1841 and Helix cupani Calcara, 1842 (syntypes) are discussed. Particularly, A. mandralisci is proposed as a synonym of Allopeas gracilis (Hutton, 1834), H. schwerzenbachi is proposed as a synonym of Punctum (Punctum) pygmaeum (Draparnaud, 1801), and H. cupani is proposed as a synonym of Xerotricha conspurcata (Draparnaud, 1801).