Two new species of Landouria Godwin-Austen, 1918 from Timor-Leste (Stylommatophora, Camaenidae)

ABSTRACT

By employing comparative morphology and anatomy as well as mitochondrial phylogenetics, we have identified three species of Landouria Godwin-Austen, 1918 in Timor-Leste. One of these species is identified as L. cf winteriana (Pfeiffer, 1842), a species originally described from Java, but considered widespread throughout the Indonesian archipelago. The two other species are newly described as L. timorensis n. sp. and L. montana n. sp., respectively. Landouria timorensis n. sp. is similar to L. winteriana, but differs by a smaller shell and details of its penial morphology. Landouria montana n. sp. is only found at higher altitudes and is readily distinguishable by its distinctive shell. A mitochondrial phylogeny reveals L. omphalostoma from Yunnan as the sister lineage of all Sunda Islands species. Based on this observation, we maintain the systematic placement of the Sunda Islands species in Landouria despite some minor differences in their genital anatomy. Furthermore, our phylogeny demonstrates that the East Asian genus Aegista Albers, 1850 is the probable sister taxon of Landouria. However, we reject the proposal by Hirano et al. ([2014] Substantial incongruence among the morphology, taxonomy, and molecular phylogeny of the land snails Aegista, Landouria, Trishoplita, and Pseudobuliminus (Pulmonata: Bradybaenidae) occurring in East Asia. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 70, 171–181) to synonymise both genera based on their markedly distinct reproductive anatomy.

KEYWORDS:

• Eupulmonata
• Helicoidea
• Bradybaeninae
• Sunda Islands
• Indonesia
• taxonomy

Acknowledgements

We thank Manuel Mendes, Director for Protected Areas and National Parks, National Directorate of Forestry, Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, for permitting field work in Timor-Leste and for his continuous support. We thank Barna Páll-Gergely (Budapest), John Slapcinsky (FLMNH), and Ayu Savitri Nurinsiyah (ZMH) for providing samples of Landouria species from outside Timor. Furthermore, we gratefully acknowledge the assistance of Francesco Criscione (AM) with DNA lab work, and the constructive comments of an anonymous reviewer, the copy editor Doris Shearman, and the Editor-in-Chief Don Colgan, which helped to improve the quality of this publication.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Frank Köhler http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7150-6509

Additional information

Funding

Fieldwork in Timor-Leste was partly funded through a private donation to the Australian Museum Foundation.