Integrative systematics reveals the new land-snail genus Taphrenalla (Eupulmonata: Ariophantidae) with a description of nine new species from Thailand

Abstract

The endemic terrestrial Crown Snail from Southern Thailand formerly in Macrochlamys Gray, 1847 is now described as Taphrenalla Pholyotha & Panha gen. nov., based on comparative morphology and molecular data. Overall, eleven Taphrenalla species are now recognized, including two nominal species: T. asamurai and T. diadema. A total of nine new species are proposed: T. alba sp. nov., T. conformis sp. nov., T. corona sp. nov., T. dalli sp. nov., T. incilis sp. nov., T. macrosulcata sp. nov., T. parversa sp. nov., T. pygmaea sp. nov. and T. zemia sp. nov. The molecular phylogeny constructed from the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase c subunit I (COI) and 16S rRNA gene fragments plus the nuclear 28S rDNA gene fragments revealed that Taphrenalla gen. nov. is monophyletic with a well-supported clade. The diagnostic characters of Taphrenalla gen. nov. are the shell sculpture with several radial grooves, body with well-developed colourful stripes running from the head to tail, and genitalia similar to Macrochamys but with an un-coiling epiphallic caecum. The spermatophore has one or two spines near the sperm sac and a spineless tail.

Reassessment and systematic position of the sinistral snails of genus Hemiplecta from Thailand (Eupulmonata: Ariophantidae), with description of two new species

“…The details of taxon sampling used in phylogenetic analysis are shown in table 1. Most of the sequences in this study were newly obtained from 42 specimens, but some sequences were retrieved from previous studies (i.e., Sutcharit et al, 2019 andPholyotha et al, 2020).…”

“…The most consistent and reliable character for species delimitation in every species of land snail is the internal anatomy of the penis, along with other genital characters relating to the penis and epiphallus, whereas the gametolytic organ was informative at the genus level (Hyman et al, 2017;Pholyotha et al, 2020;Siriboon et al, 2020). For example, reproductive organs are highly consistent in the dark shell and yellow shell forms (C. Sutcharit, unpublished data) of H. funerea, (i.e., coiled epiphallic caecum and penial verge absent; table 3).…”

“…Several recent systematic studies have revealed considerable plasticity in morphological characteristics, and substantial incongruence between the morphology-based classification and molecular phylogenetic analyses. Such findings fuel the controversy over whether standard taxonomic methods are inadequate, and whether the distinct phylogenetic lineages derived from molecular data could facilitate the task of biological classification (Seberg et al, 2003;Tautz et al, 2003;Dunn, 2003;Hebert & Gregory, 2005;Hirano et al, 2014;Köhler & Criscione, 2015;Pholyotha et al, 2020).…”

Integrative taxonomic revision of the land snail genus Sarika Godwin-Austen, 1907 in Thailand, with descriptions of nine new species (Eupulmonata, Ariophantidae)

“…In the descriptions of the genitalia, the term ‘proximal’ refers to the region closest to the genital opening, while ‘distal’ refers to the region furthest away from the genital opening. The following abbreviations were used as defined by Godwin-Austen 1907 , Blanford and Godwin-Austen (1908) , Solem (1966) , Sutcharit and Panha (2008) , and Pholyotha et al (2018 , 2020b ):…”

Varadia, a new helicarionoidean semi-slug genus from India’s Western Ghats (Stylommatophora: Helicarionoidea)

“…To date, although South Asian taxa have been included in molecular phylogenetic analyses of deep-level pulmonate relationships (e.g., Wade et al 2001Wade et al , 2006Herbert & Mitchell 2009;Ramirez et al 2012), studies focussing on the molecular systematics and diversification of South Asian helicarionoideans have yet to be carried out. With the exception of the substantial work done on Australian helicarionids (e.g., Hyman et al 2007Hyman et al , 2017Hyman & Ponder 2010;Hyman & Köhler 2019), this reflects the general scarcity of such studies globally (but see Schilthuizen et al 2019;Pholyotha et al 2020a).…”