A new genus and two new species of Hydrobiidae (Mollusca, Caenogastropoda) from the Iberian Peninsula

Abstract

Two new species of valvatoid hydrobiids are reported from southern and eastern Spain that showed notable similarities with Horatia Bourguignat, 1887 species. However, a conchological redescription of Horatia klecakiana Bourguignat, 1887, the type species of this Balkan genus, and the study of new characters for the Iberian species suggest differences between the Balkan and the Iberian groups of species. These differences and the large geographical separation between the Balkan and the Iberian populations for species with poor dispersal capacity lead us to introduce a new generic taxon, Iberhoratia Arconada and Ramos (this paper), to include the two new species. In the Iberian Peninsula, another two species have been described in Horatia, H. (?) sturmi (Rosenhauer, 1856) and H. gatoa Boeters, 1980. The first was recently moved to a new genus, Boetersiella Arconada and Ramos, 2001, while the second is here assigned to Iberhoratia. The introduction of a new genus for the Iberian Peninsula is another indication of the richness and endemic diversity of the Hydrobiidae in this region.