Biodiversity Journal, 2019, 10 (4): 499–516 Notes on some interesting species of Mollusca Gastropoda of the Monterosato collection from the Museum of Paleontology (Catania University, Italy) Agatino Reitano 1* , Fabio Liberto 2 , Maria Stella Colomba 3 , Ignazio Sparacio 4 & Rossana Sanfilippo 5 1 Natural History Museum, via degli Studi 9, 97013 Comiso (Ragusa), Italy; e-mail: tinohawk@yahoo.it 2 Via del Giubileo Magno 93 - 90015 Cefalù, Italy; e-mail: fabioliberto@yahoo.it 3 Università di Urbino, DiSB, via Maggetti 22 (loc. Sasso), 61029 Urbino, Italy; e-mail: mariastella.colomba@uniurb.it 4 Via Principe di Paternò 3, 90144 Palermo, Italy; e-mail: edizionidanaus@gmail.com 5 Department of Biological, Geological and Environmental Sciences, University of Catania, Corso Italia 57, 95129 Catania, Italy; e-mail: sanfiros@unict.it * Corresponding author ABSTRACT 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 Biodiver- sity”, 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 malacolo- gist 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 syn- onym of Xerotricha conspurcata (Draparnaud, 1801). INTRODUCTION Tommaso Di Maria, baron of Allery and marquis of Monterosato (Palermo June 27 th , 1841 - ibidem, March l st , 1927), was one of the most influential malacologists in the second half of the 19th century, specialized in the systematics of continental and mostly marine and fossil molluscs from the Mediter- ranean and north east Atlantic. He described a very large number of taxa, still valid today. Much of the Monterosato specimens, since 1942, are hold in the malacological collections of the Museo Civico di Zoologia di Roma [= Town- ship Zoological Museum of Rome (ZMR)] . These KEY WORDS Taxonomy; Mollusca; Gastropoda; Monterosato; malacological collection; Museum. https://doi.org/10.31396/Biodiv.Jour.2019.10.4.499.516 MONOGRAPH