The genusMercuriaBoeters, 1971 in France (Gastropoda: Caenogastropoda: Hydrobiidae). West-European Hydrobiidae, Part 13

Abstract

The Mercuria Boeters, 1971 species living in the coastal zones of France are reviewed. In the Atlantic zone the genus Mercuria comprises four species:

The genus Mercuria Boeters, 1971 in Morocco: first molecular phylogeny of the genus and description of two new species (Caenogastropoda, Truncatelloidea, Hydrobiidae)

“…All species were recovered as independent entities in our phylogenetic inference (Figure 2) and ABGD analyses, including the European species with an uncorrected p-distance of 7.7% between them. These findings contradict previous studies (Girardi 2004, Gargominy et al 2011, Boeters and Falkner 2017) in which the populations of M.emiliana studied by Boeters (1988) were synonymized with M.similis and the populations of M.emiliana described by Paladilhe (1866) were included within the genus Pseudamnicola Paulucci, 1878. Our molecular study revealed that sequences of M.emiliana available in GenBank (Table 1) were genetically distant from both the species M.similis and those of the genus Pseudamnicola (Table 2).…”

“…The gastropod genus Mercuria Boeters, 1971 (Truncatelloidea, Hydrobiidae) is widely distributed in continental aquatic systems of western Mediterranean territories and islands (Giusti 1979, Boeters 1988, Glöer et al 2010, Patzner and Glöer 2013, Boeters and Falkner 2017) and more rarely in those of the Atlantic coasts of North Africa (Glöer et al 2015) and Western Europe (Boeters 1988, Kadolsky 2011, Glöer et al 2015, Boeters and Falkner 2017) and Madeira (Glöer et al 2015). This genus currently comprises 26 species occurring mainly in lowland regions of North Africa (nine species; Glöer et al 2015), continental France (six species; Boeters and Falkner 2017), and the Iberian Peninsula and Balearic Islands (four species, Boeters 1988, Glöer et al 2015).…”

“…This genus currently comprises 26 species occurring mainly in lowland regions of North Africa (nine species; Glöer et al 2015), continental France (six species; Boeters and Falkner 2017), and the Iberian Peninsula and Balearic Islands (four species, Boeters 1988, Glöer et al 2015). Mercuria species occupy a wide variety of aquatic habitats, typically living in high abundance in springs and their outflows, coastal streams, and tide areas of rivers.…”

“…However, given their small size (shell height 1–5 mm) and featureless shells, molecular tools could help confirm the taxonomy and the phylogenetic position of Mercuria within the family. Based on molecular data obtained for the species Mercuriasimilis (Draparnaud, 1805), Wilke et al (2013) recovered this genus as an independent lineage within the Hydrobiidae, which was further designated as the subfamily Mercuriinae (Boeters and Falkner 2017). …”

“…The earliest record of this genus in southern Morocco was M.confusa (Frauenfeld, 1863) (BackHuys and Boeters 1974), which has been recently placed in synonymy with M.similis (Boeters and Falkner 2017). Over the years, M.similis (= M.confusa ) has been reported from several springs and streams in central and western Morocco (Ghamizi et al 1997, Berrahou et al 2001, Touabay et al 2002, Boulal et al 2017, Taybi et al 2017).…”