Five new cryptic freshwater gastropod species from New Caledonia (Caenogastropoda, Truncatelloidea, Tateidae)

By

Haase, Martin
Zielske, Susan

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2015

Original Publication

ZooKeys

Volume

523

Pages

63-87

Subjects

Conservation , cryptic species , endemic , integrative taxonomy , IUCN , New Caledonia , South Pacific , spring snails , Tateidae

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Sofia, Bulgaria Pensoft Publishers

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.523.6066

 

Abstract

During the course of a project aiming at the reconstruction of the colonization of the South Pacific islands by tateid gastropods based on molecular data we discovered five new species on New Caledonia belonging to the genera Hemistomia and Leiorhagium, respectively. We describe these species based on morphological, anatomical and genetic data. All five species are morphologically cryptic as they closely resemble or are even indistinguishable from known species stressing the importance of a comprehensive taxonomic approach integrating several methods. As a consequence of their small and fragmented geographic ranges and the rapidly progressing anthropogenic land cover changes on New Caledonia, all five species qualify as critically endangered according to the criteria of the IUCN.