Vitrinidae Fitzinger, 1833

Ruud, A. Bank, Henk P. M. G Menkhorst & Eike Neubert, 2016, Descriptions of new and little-known land snail taxa from Turkey, and establishment of a new genus (Gastropoda, Pulmonata: Lauriidae, Enidae and Vitrinidae), Basteria 80 (1), pp. 5-30 : 23-25

Familia Vitrinidae Fitzinger, 1833

From the European mainland, Turkey, the Caucasus and northern Africa (Libya and Algeria) several vitrinid genera have been reported, encompassing about 30 species. These are the genera Eucobresia H.B. Baker, 1929 , Hessemilimax Schileyko, 1986, Oligolimax P. Fischer, 1878 , Phenacolimax Stabile, 1859 , Sardovitrina Manganelli & Giusti, 2005 , Semilimacella Soós, 1917 , Semilimax Gray, 1847 , Vitrina Draparnaud, 1801 , and Vitrinobrachium Künkel, 1929 . None of the species from these genera have a shell with a maximum diameter above 10 mm. The situation is different with respect to Macaronesia (Madeira, Canary Islands, Azores). It is home for 35 endemic species classified into the genera Azorivitrina Giusti, Fiorentino, Benocci & Manganelli, 2011, Canarivitrina Valido & Alonso, 2000 , Guerrina Odhner, 1955 , Insulivitrina P. Hesse, 1923 , Madeirovitrina Groh & Hemmen, 1986 , and Plutonia Stabile, 1864 . Shells of a number of vitrinids of Macaronesia are relatively large, and reach sizes above 11 mm: Insulivitrina and Madeirovitrina . Calidivitrina Pilsbry, 1919, is a genus endemic for the African continent. Representatives of this genus are known from Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and the eastern border of Congo-Kinshasa. These are: bambuseti (Thiele, 1911), cagnii (Pollonera, 1906), chyuluensis ( Verdcourt, 2005), ericinellae (d’Ailly, 1910), ibandensis (Pollonera, 1907), kiboschoensis (d’Ailly, 1910), lactae Connolly, 1925, lobeliaecola (Dautzenberg, 1908), nigrocincta (E. von Martens, 1887), oleosa (E. von Martens, 1895) [= type species], ugandensis (Thiele, 1911), tenuissima (Thiele, 1911), variopunctata (Connolly, 1931), and viridisplendens (d’Ailly, 1910). The maximum diameter of the shell of most Calidivitrina species is in the range between 8 and 11 mm; the largest two species are bambuseti (12 mm) and chyuluensis (13 mm).

The genus Arabivitrina Thiele, 1931 is distributed in Yemen and in the southwestern part of Saudi Arabia, namely A. arabica (Thiele, 1910) [= type species] and A. jansseni Neubert, 1998, as well as in Abyssinia (Ethiopia). The two taxa from Saudi Arabia / Yemen have been reviewed by Neubert (1998); the shell reaches a maximum diameter of about 21 and 18 mm, respectively. From Ethiopia a large number of taxa have been described that might be assigned to Arabivitrina. These are abyssinica (L. Peiffer, 1848), antonellii (Pollonera, 1888), bianchii (Pollonera, 1888), caillaudi (Morelet, 1872), chiauzzii (Bacci, 1940), conquisita (Jickeli, 1882), darnaudi (L. Pfeiffer, 1856), demissa (Pollonera, 1898), devexa (Jickeli, 1873), giuliettii (Pollonera, 1888), grossepunctata (Connolly, 1928), helicoidea (Jickeli, 1873), herbini (Bourguignat, 1883), humilis (Pollonera, 1898), isseli (Morelet, 1872), jamjamensis (Kobelt, 1905), jickelii (Jickeli, 1874), licatae (Pollonera, 1888), martensii (Jickeli, 1873), martinii (Pollonera, 1888), milneedwardsiana (Bourguignat, 1883), modesta (Pollonera, 1898), naticoides (Pollonera, 1888), neumanni Thiele, 1933, olivacea Thiele, 1933, perobliqua (Innes, 1884), planulata (Jickeli, 1873), raffrayi (Bourguignat, 1883), ragazzii (Pollonera, 1888), riepiana (Jickeli, 1882), and semirugata (Jickeli, 1873). However, the validity of these taxa is in most cases quite unclear: it is reasonable to assume that, after revision, several names turn out to be synonyms. Furthermore, it is even possible that some names do not belong to Arabivitrina, but to members of the superfamily Helicarionoidea. Most of the mentioned taxa have relatively large dimensions, i.e. the maximum diameter of the shell is in the range between 11 and 21 mm. Two species are exceptionally large, namely licatae and ragazzii, with reported sizes of 23 and 30 mm, respectively. For an introduction into the chaotic state of the African Vitrinidae we refer to Forcart (1956, 1978), Hubendick (1953) and Verdcourt (2005).

Three vitrinid species have been reported from Madagascar: madagascariensis E.A. Smith, 1882, marojeziana Fischer-Piette, C. Blanc, F. Blanc & Salvat, 1994, and josephinae Emberton & Griffiths, 2009. However, the original figures of marojeziana and josephinae show an animal with a caudal horn; these taxa should therefore be assigned to the superfamily Helicarionoidea, as will undoubtedly be the case for madagascariensis as well.

We stumbled upon a large Turkish vitrinid species collected at the Nemrud Dağ, which we cannot assign to one of the above mentioned genera. A most likely closely related -but almost forgotten- species lives at several localities in Lebanon, currently known as Vitrina libanica Germain, 1911 .