''Ba humbugi'' is the only

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

and therefore the type species in the genus ''Ba'', a genus of

land snail A land snail is any of the numerous species of snail that live on land, as opposed to the sea snails and freshwater snails. ''Land snail'' is the common name for terrestrial gastropod mollusks that have shells (those without shells are known as ...

, belonging to the family

Charopidae Charopidae is a taxonomic family of small air-breathing land snails (and semi-slugs such as ''Otoconcha dimidiata''), terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusks in the superfamily Punctoidea.MolluscaBase eds. (2021). MolluscaBase. Charopidae Hutt ...

. Both the genus and the species were named by the American

malacologist Malacology is the branch of invertebrate zoology that deals with the study of the Mollusca (mollusks or molluscs), the second-largest phylum of animals in terms of described species after the arthropods. Mollusks include snails and slugs, clams, ...

Alan Solem George Alan Solem (21 June 1931 – 26 March 1990),Coan E. V., Kabat A. R. & Petit R. E. (2009). ''2,400 years of malacology, 6th ed.'', February 15, 2009, 830 pp. + 32 pp. nnex of Collations American Malacological Society: http://www.malacologi ...

. The genus is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

to the Fijian island of

Viti Levu Viti Levu (pronounced ) is the largest island in the Republic of Fiji. It is the site of the nation's capital, Suva, and home to a large majority of Fiji's population. Geology Fiji lies in a tectonically complex area between the Australian P ...

, and ' is an endangered species.

Taxonomic history

, the curator of invertebrates at the

Field Museum of Natural History The Field Museum of Natural History (FMNH), also known as The Field Museum, is a natural history museum in Chicago, Illinois, and is one of the largest such museums in the world. The museum is popular for the size and quality of its educational ...

, created the genus ''Ba'' for his newly- described species '. Solem based his description of the

type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specimen ...

' on a

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of several ...

which the American malacologist

Yoshio Kondo Yoshio Kondo (1910, on Maui, Hawaii - 1990, on Oahu, Hawaii) was an American biologist and malacologist. He spent virtually his entire life in Hawaii, with the exception of a number of collecting expeditions, primarily to islands in the Pacific O ...

had collected in 1938 and three

paratype In zoology and botany, a paratype is a specimen of an organism that helps define what the scientific name of a species and other taxon actually represents, but it is not the holotype (and in botany is also neither an isotype nor a syntype). Of ...

s. One paratype was deposited in the Field Museum; the remaining specimens in the type series were deposited in the

Bishop Museum The Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum, designated the Hawaii State Museum of Natural and Cultural History, is a museum of history and science in the historic Kalihi district of Honolulu on the Hawaiian island of Oʻahu. Founded in 1889, it is the lar ...

Etymology

Solem chose the generic name ''Ba'' after

Ba District, Fiji Ba is a district situated on the north western part of the island of Viti Levu in Fiji. The name Ba is also used for a province, a ''tikina'' (a native Fijian administrative region comprising several villages), a town and a river. Ba district c ...

, which extends into ' range. This led to him having an "irresistible impulse" to name the type species ', in reference to the character

Ebenezer Scrooge Ebenezer Scrooge () is the protagonist of Charles Dickens's 1843 novella ''A Christmas Carol''. At the beginning of the novella, Scrooge is a cold-hearted miser who despises Christmas. The tale of his redemption by three spirits (the Ghost of ...

's catchphrase "Bah!

Humbug A humbug is a person or object that behaves in a deceptive or dishonest way, often as a hoax or in jest. The term was first described in 1751 as student slang, and recorded in 1840 as a "nautical phrase". It is now also often used as an exclama ...

!" from Charles Dickens's novella ''

A Christmas Carol ''A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas'', commonly known as ''A Christmas Carol'', is a novella by Charles Dickens, first published in London by Chapman & Hall in 1843 and illustrated by John Leech. ''A Christmas C ...

''. One review of Solem's monograph naming this species said his choice in taxa names "may either lighten the reader's day or engender hostility", giving this binomen as an example.

Distribution

' is

to Fiji. It is found in the interior of

, an island in Fiji, at elevations of . The holotype was collected in dense forest on Mount Nangaranambulata at an elevation of . Two paratypes were collected on the top of Mount Korobamba at an elevation of . The third paratype was collected in the Sanganaoreva area inland of Ngaloa, Nuku District at an elevation of .

Description

''Ba'' is characterized by having a high spire and an umbilicus which is either completely closed or slightly laterally cracked. There are only 3⅛–3½

whorl A whorl ( or ) is an individual circle, oval, volution or equivalent in a whorled pattern, which consists of a spiral or multiple concentric objects (including circles, ovals and arcs). Whorls in nature File:Photograph and axial plane floral ...

s, and its apical

sculpture Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

consists of about a dozen spiral cords. There are no barriers to its

aperture In optics, an aperture is a hole or an opening through which light travels. More specifically, the aperture and focal length of an optical system determine the cone angle of a bundle of rays that come to a focus in the image plane. An opt ...

. ' has a shell with a diameter of . The height-to-diameter ratio ranges from 0.752 to 0.842. Its shell is a light reddish-yellow; its periostracal extensions are an almost black dark brown. The body is yellow-white and lacks any sort of dark markings.

Biology

' is

sympatric In biology, two related species or populations are considered sympatric when they exist in the same geographic area and thus frequently encounter one another. An initially interbreeding population that splits into two or more distinct species sh ...

with '' Sinployea irregularis''; both species were found under the same log. It is probably strictly terrestrial due to a lack of black marks on its body.

Conservation status and threats

According to the

IUCN Red List The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biol ...

, ' is

endangered An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching and inva ...

. They note that only four specimens have been found despite many surveys on Viti Levu over a century and a half. The IUCN estimates an area of occupancy of , and its habitat continues to decline due to deforestation. The IUCN believes

invasive species An invasive species otherwise known as an alien is an introduced organism that becomes overpopulated and harms its new environment. Although most introduced species are neutral or beneficial with respect to other species, invasive species ad ...

, such as the

Pacific rat The Polynesian rat, Pacific rat or little rat (''Rattus exulans''), known to the Māori as ''kiore'', is the third most widespread species of rat in the world behind the brown rat and black rat. The Polynesian rat originated in Southeast Asia, an ...

black rat The black rat (''Rattus rattus''), also known as the roof rat, ship rat, or house rat, is a common long-tailed rodent of the stereotypical rat genus ''Rattus'', in the subfamily Murinae. It likely originated in the Indian subcontinent, but is n ...

house mouse The house mouse (''Mus musculus'') is a small mammal of the order Rodentia, characteristically having a pointed snout, large rounded ears, and a long and almost hairless tail. It is one of the most abundant species of the genus '' Mus''. Althoug ...

, and various invasive ant species, also negatively affect '. The IUCN predicts it would be detrimental if the invasive

giant African snail Giant African land snail is the common name of several species within the family Achatinidae, a family of unusually large African terrestrial snails: * ''Achatina achatina'', also known as the agate snail or Ghana tiger snail * ''Lissachatina fulic ...

, rosy wolf snail, or the New Guinea flatworm were introduced to Viti Levu.

References

Works cited

External links

* Paratype. {{Taxonbar, from=Q20056386, from2=Q20073217 Charopidae Endemic fauna of Fiji Gastropods described in 1983 Humour in science