A taxonomic position of Armenian endemic freshwater snails of the genus Shadinia Akramowski, 1976 (Caenogastropoda: Hydrobiidae): combining morphological and molecular evidence

ABSTRACT

According to analyses of anatomical data and nucleotide sequences of three genes (16S, 18S rDNA and CO 1 mtDNA), the Armenian endemic genus Shadinia Akramowski, 1976 should be considered as a separate subfamily, Shadiniinae of Hydrobiidae Stimpson, 1865. A combination of genetic resemblance and similarity in conchology, morphology of radula, male and female anatomy (except some details) assures us of the close relationship of Shadinia and the genera Persipyrgula and Intermaria recently described from riverine waters of Iran. We provisionally assign these two genera to the new subfamily, which also includes the genus Nicolaia, established in 2015 for small hydrobiids from the Kasach River (Armenia). The latter genus has not yet been studied genetically, but morphological evidence leads us to consider it as compatible with Persipyrgula and Intermaria. All three genera differ significantly from the genus Shadinia in only one respect: females of these snails have one seminal receptacle, while those of Shadinia have two. The subfamily Shadiniinae is a sister group to Pyrgulinae; the former differs morphologically from the latter in possessing a pigmented nervous system and odontophore, presence of basal cusps on the central tooth of the radula and a black pigmented coiled oviduct without the widening that characterises most of the Pyrgulinae.

http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:3009CB4E-EE5B-44BE-B8E4-497B5CB3BE5D

KEYWORDS:

• Genome sequences
• hydrobiids
• morphology
• taxonomic position

Acknowledgements

The SEM work is performed at User Facilities Center of M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University under the financial support of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation. An anonymous reviewer provided important suggestions on an earlier version of this paper. We thank Winston F. Ponder for helpful comments, extensive linguistic corrections and careful proof-reading of the manuscript. Olga Anistratenko kindly assisted with creating some illustrations.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Vitaliy Anistratenko http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0832-7625

Tatiana Peretolchina http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2950-9762

Tatiana Sitnikova http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4097-5307

Dmitry Palatov http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8826-9316

Dmitry Sherbakov http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1410-392X

Additional information

Funding

The investigation was supported by the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine funded project [registration # 0114U002041]; Russian Government funded project nos. 0345-2014-0005, Russian Foundation for Basic Research, project nos.: 15-29-02515, 15-04-03848 and 15-54-40011.