Pseudamnicola occulta Glöer & Hirschfelder 2019, n. sp.
Creators: name: Glöer, Peter
name: Hirschfelder, Hans-Jürgen
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2019
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Mollusca
Gastropoda
Littorinimorpha
Hydrobiidae
Pseudamnicola
Pseudamnicola occulta

description: Pseudamnicola occulta n. sp. (Figs. 4-10)
Type material: Holotype (ZMH 140042): Shell height 3.4 mm, shell width 2.4 mm. Paratypes: from the type locality Topólia: ZMH (140043), coll. Hirschfelder (3 in ethanol, 4 dried), coll Glöer (2 in ethanol); from sampling site 2 Spíli: ZMH (140044), shell height 2.7 mm, shell width 2.1 mm (dried, Fig. 4), coll. Hirschfelder (14 in ethanol, 14 dried), coll. Kittel (4).
Type locality: Crete, Nómos Chaniá, Topólia, 9 km south of Kissamos, captured spring in village, 35°25’46.4” N, 23°41’07.1” E, alt. 260 m asl., 16.10.2014 Andrea and Hans- Jürgen Hirschfelder leg. (Figs. 11, 12). This spring is also type locality of Planorbis cretensis Glöer & Hirschfelder, 2015.
S ampling site 2 (Paratypes): Crete, Nómos Réthymnon, Spíli (17 km south of Réthymnon), spring-fed brook next to the Venetian Fountain (Lion Fountain), 23°13’04.8” N, 24°32’10.7” E, alt. 417 m asl., 13.10.2014 Andrea and Hans-Jürgen Hirschfelder leg. (Fig. 13); together with Bythinella magdalenae n. sp. and Theodoxus saulcyi (Bourguignat, 1852).
Etymology: The new species is named P. occulta which means “hidden”. It has already been found by several authors but erroneously recognized as P. brachia. So the new species was “hidden” behind a wrong name for a long time.
Description
Shell: The brownish shell is glossy, conical to elongated conical with 4.5 convex whorls and a deep suture. The aperture is ovate, slightly oblique, with a sharp peristome which is thickened at the columella. The apex is pointed. The umbilicus is open. The shell is 2.7-3.4 mm high and 2.0- 2.3 mm broad.
Animal: The animal is dark brown pigmented, with greyish tentacles. The penis is cylindrical with a broad basis and an obtuse penis tip.
Differentiating characters: The spire in Pseudamnicola occulta n. sp. is higher than in P. brachia, the whorls are more convex and the suture is deeper. In addition P. occulta n. sp. is much larger than P. brachia.
Additional material: In the following springs P. occulta n. sp. probably lives as well. The collected specimens correspond with the type series but are not treated as paratypes because only dry material could be examined and no anatomical investigation was made:
Sampling site 3: Crete, Nómos Réthymnon, Myrthios, 1 km north of Plakiás, spring below the wash house, 22.10.2014 Andrea and Hans-Jürgen Hirschfelder, Klaus Kittel leg.; together with Melanopsis buccinoidea (Olivier, 1801);
Sampling site 4: Crete, Nómos Réthymnon, Amári valley, 8.4 km east of Spíli, spring along the road 1.6 km from Méronas towards Amári, 19.04.2016 Andrea and Hans-Jürgen Hirschfelder leg.;
Sampling site 5: Crete, Nómos Lasíthi, fountain in Zou, 6 km south of Sitía, 29.04.2015 Andrea and Hans-Jürgen Hirschfelder, Klaus Kittel leg. (Fig. 35); together with Bythinella sitiensis n. sp. (type locality), Melanopsis buccinoidea and Theodoxus saulcyi;
Sampling site 6: Crete, Nómos Lasíthi, Zákros, Zákros Spring at the western edge of the village, small gutter beside the big source, 29.04.2015 Andrea and Hans-Jürgen Hirschfelder, Klaus Kittel leg. (Fig. 36); together with Bythinella sitiensis n. sp. and Theodoxus saulcyi.
Distribution: P. occulta n. sp. is known from several springs in western, central and eastern Crete and is probably widely distributed in the island.
Remarks: During our visit on Crete we found no Pseudamnicola in springs in the vicinity of Iráklio, i.e. in the big source of Almyros river 8 km west of the town center of Iráklio. Therefore the exact type locality and the distribution of the “true” P. brachia (Westerlund, 1886) remains further unknown.
description: Published as part of Glöer, Peter & Hirschfelder, Hans-Jürgen, 2019, New Freshwater molluscs from Crete, Greece (Gastropoda: Hydrobiidae, Bythinellidae, Valvatidae), pp. 10-23 in Ecologica Montenegrina 20 on pages 13-15, DOI: 10.37828/em.2019.20.2, http://zenodo.org/record/8028305