Two new Truncatelloidea species from Melissotrypa Cave in Greece (Caenogastropoda)

Abstract

In the small lake located in the cave Melissotrypa in Thessalia, Greece, truncatelloidean gastropods representing two species were found, new to science. One of them, represented by two specimens only, has been described based on the shell characters only; with its cytochrome oxidase sequence it has been assigned to the genus Iglica, and to the family Moitessieriidae, Iglica hellenica sp. n. For the other species, represented by 30 collected specimens, the shell, protoconch, radula, head, penis and female reproductive organs have been described; all the morphological characters and cytochrome oxidase sequences have confirmed its assignment to the genus Daphniola (Hydrobiidae: Sadlerianinae), Daphniola magdalenae Falniowski, sp. n.

Molecular and morphological divergence in a stygobiont gastropod lineage (Truncatelloidea, Moitessieriidae,Paladilhiopsis) within an isolated karstic area in the Mecsek Mountains (Hungary)

“…According to the COI tree, Mecsek haplotypes as well as the Alpine Bythiospeum form monophyletic clades and stand relatively far from each other ( p ‐distance = .181). Of the currently available COI sequences, that of Iglica hellenica (Falniowski & Sarbu, ) is the most related to the Mecsek haplotypes (Figure ). Comparing uncorrected p ‐distances, the distance between the two Mecsek haplogroups (Abaliget versus Mánfa‐1/Mánfa‐2; p = 0.064) is larger than the distances between the sister species of Alpine Bythiospeum (Figure .…”

“…The genus‐level assignment is another uncertain issue; following the view of Boeters (), in the past decades they were classified into the genus Bythiospeum Bourguignat, 1882 (e.g., Bank, ; Glöer, ). However, Falniowski and Sarbu () found recently that the Mecsek populations have more affinity to the Balkan moitessieriid genera than to the Alpine Bythiospeum s. str. A recent and more detailed molecular phylogenetic reconstruction of the Moitessieriidae family revealed that they belong to Paladilhiopsis (Hofman et al., in press).…”

Monophyly of the Moitessieriidae Bourguignat, 1863 (Caenogastropoda: Truncatelloidea)

“…This was in contrast to findings of wilke et al (2013), who reported its monophyly; it should be noted, though, that the family representatives failed to form a distinct clade, and neither Iglica nor Paladilhiopsis were included in the phylogenetic analysis. In the COI tree of hoFmAn et al (2018) there was a well-supported clade containing all the Balkan Paladilhiopsis and Iglica hellenica Falniowski et Sarbu, 2015, another well supported clade of I. cf. gracilis (Clessin, 1882) (both formed a weakly supported clade), a third well-supported clade of the Cochliopidae, and the fourth well-supported clade grouping together all members of the "real" Bythiospeum.…”

Description of a new genus and species as the first gastropod species from caves in Iran

“…The sulfide cave ecosystems received attention with the studies of Sarbu et al (1996). The first studied cave containing a sulfide ecosystem was Movile Cave in Romania (Sarbu and Popa, 1992;Sarbu et al, 1996;Sarbu, 2000;Engel, 2012), followed by the Frasassi caves and Grotto Azzurra in Italy (Macalady et al, 2007;Peterson et al, 2013), Tito Bustillo and Maltravieso caves in Spain (Schabereiter-Gurtner, 2002;Arrozo et al, 1997), Fiume Coperto Cave in Italy (Latella et al, 1999), Melissotrypa Cave in Greece (Falniowski and Sarbu, 2015), El Hamma in Tunisia (Por, 1963), Ayalon Cave and the Tabgha Spring in Israel (Por, 1963;2011), Kugitangtou caves in Turkmenistan (Maltsev and Korshunov, 1998), Cueva de Villa Luz in Mexico (Hose et al, 2000;Engel, 2007), Bungonia and Nullarbor caves with Bunder Sinkhole in Australia (Holmes et al, 2001;Jaume et al, 2001), Lower Kane Cave in Wyoming, USA (Porter et al, 2002), Cesspool Cave in Virginia, USA (Engel et al, 2001), and the Mammoth and Parker Caves in North America (Hutchins et al, 2016).…”

“…Hydrogen sulfide is toxic for most organisms (Kelley et al, 2006), and only five of the around twenty so far known sulfide cave ecosystem sites host stygobiont gastropod species, as likely outcomes of extreme sulfide adaptation: Heleobia dobrogica (Grossu and Negrea, 1989) from Movile Cave (Falniowski et al, 2008), Islamia sulfurea Bodon and Cianfanelli, 2012 from the Frasassi caves (Bodon et al, 2009;Bodon and Cianfaneli, 2012), Physella spelunca Turner and Clench, 1974 from Lower Kane Cave in Wyoming (Porter, 2002;Wethington and Guralnick, 2004) as well as Iglica hellenica and Daphiola magdalenae (Falniowski and Sarbu, 2015) from Melissotrypa Cave in Greece. The discovery of a sixth sulfidic stygobiont gastropod species in the Tashan Cave of Iran, reported here, is thus of general ecological importance.…”