Pseudamnicola brachia ( Westerlund, 1886 )

Glöer, Peter & Hirschfelder, Hans-Jürgen, 2019, New Freshwater molluscs from Crete, Greece (Gastropoda: Hydrobiidae, Bythinellidae, Valvatidae), Ecologica Montenegrina 20, pp. 10-23 : 12-13

Pseudamnicola brachia ( Westerlund, 1886) ( Fig. 1 , 3 )

Type locality: Creta .

Remarks: The original description ( Fig. 1 ) corresponds with the syntype of Westerlund’s collection ( Fig. 3 ). Unfortunately Westerlund did not mention the exact type locality on Crete in his description. On the label only the town of Candia is noted which is the older name of the capital Iráklio.

The specimens collected by H-JH do not correspond with the original description nor with the picture of the syntype of Pseudamnicola brachia of Westerlund’s collection: “Gew. dick u. kurz, eifg., stumpf …“. This translates to: “spire broad, short ovate, obtuse …“. And the difference becomes particularly visible if we compare the type with a subadult specimen of Pseudamnicola occulta n. sp. of the same size ( Figs. 3, 4 ).

Schütt (1980: 133) listed Pseudamnicola brachia from many sampling sites on Crete, also from Spíli but not from Topólia. If we compare his photos with P. occulta n. sp. we see that Schütt had possibly the new species in hand, but not P. brachia . Also the photos presented in Szarowska et al. (2015) correspond very well with P. occulta n. sp. (see Figs. 7-10 ).

Figures

Figure 1. Faksimile of the original description and the label of the syntype (fig. 3) of Westerlund’s collection.

Figures 3-6. The Pseudamnicola spp. from Crete. 3: Syntype of P. brachia, 4: subadult shell of Pseudamnicola occulta n. sp. of same size as P. brachia, 5: Pseudamnicola sp. from the publication of Szarowska et al. (2015, Fig. 7 C) and 6: as well as a penis (Fig. 10 L).

Figures 7-10. Pseudamnicola occulta n. sp. from Crete. 7: adult shell from Topólia (holotype) and 8: penis in situ (s = snout), 9: adult shell from Spíli (paratype) and 10: penis in situ.