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Ambigolimax nyctelius
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Mollusca
Class:	Gastropoda
Order:	Stylommatophora
Superfamily:	Limacoidea
Family:	Limacidae
Genus:	Ambigolimax
Species:	A. nyctelius
Binomial name
Ambigolimax nyctelius (Bourguignat, 1861)

The name Ambigolimax nyctelius (and similarly Lehmannia nyctelia and Limax nyctelius) has been used to refer to several species of air-breathing land slugs (terrestrial pulmonate gastropod molluscs) in the family Limacidae. An article published in 2022 revealed this confusion and furthermore showed that the original description applied to a slug species in a different family. The above names are therefore no longer appropriate and care is need to interpret the meaning of earlier usages.

The following five species were confused:

• Letourneuxia nyctelia (family Arionidae) is the slug originally described. Until 2022 it was mostly known as Letourneuxia numidica;
• Ambigolimax waterstoni is believed native in Algeria but has been reported also from South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Elba and some Scottish botanic gardens;
• Ambigolimax parvipenis is a widespread invasive species in the British Isles and California, and has been reported also from Spain, France, Greece and Arizona;
• Lehmannia carpatica occurs mostly at high altitudes along the chain of the Carpathian Mountains and in other ranges further south from Albania to Bulgaria;
• Simroth and Pollonera used the species name nyctelia for a poorly known species from North Africa attributed to the genus Malacolimax.

References

1. ^ Hutchinson, John M.C.; Reise, Heike; Schlitt, Bettina (30 June 2022). "Will the real Limax nyctelius please step forward: Lehmannia, Ambigolimax, or Malacolimax? No, Letourneuxia!". Archiv für Molluskenkunde. 151 (1): 19–41. doi:10.1127/arch.moll/151/019-041.
2. "Ambigolimax nyctelius (Bourguignat, 1861)". Molluscabase. Flanders Marine Institute. Retrieved 16 July 2022.
3. "Letourneuxia nyctelia (Bourguignat, 1861)". Molluscabase. Flanders Marine Institute. Retrieved 16 July 2022.
4. "Ambigolimax waterstoni Hutchinson, Reise & Schlitt, 2022". Molluscabase. Flanders Marine Institute. Retrieved 16 July 2022.
5. "Ambigolimax parvipenis Hutchinson, Reise & Schlitt, 2022". Molluscabase. Flanders Marine Institute. Retrieved 16 July 2022.
6. "Lehmannia carpatica Hutchinson, Reise & Schlitt, 2022". Molluscabase. Flanders Marine Institute. Retrieved 16 July 2022.
7. Simroth, H. (1885). "Versuch einer Naturgeschichte der deutschen Nacktschnecken und ihrer europäischen Verwandten". Zeitschrift für Wissenschaftliche Zoologie. 42: 203–366, pls 7–11.
8. Pollonera, C. (1891). "Appunti di malacologia. VIII. Sui Limacidi dell'Algeria". Bollettino dei Musei di Zoologia ed Anatomia Comparata della Reale Università di Torino. 6 (100): 1–5.

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• Ambigolimax
• Taxa named by Jules René Bourguignat
• Gastropods described in 1861
• Sigmurethra stubs