Abstract
Taxonomic work on the land snail genus Sarika Godwin-Austen, 1907 in Cambodia is scarce. A total of three species were recognized from Cambodia prior to this study. However, their taxonomic descriptions were based mainly on shell morphology, with limited genital data. To address this knowledge gap, we opportunistically surveyed for land snails in Cambodia. Our inventory yielded four species of Sarika – one recognized species, Sarika bocourti (Morelet, 1875), from Battambang Province and three new species, Sarika khmeriana Pholyotha & Panha sp. nov., Sarika lactoconcha Pholyotha & Panha sp. nov. and Sarika nana Pholyotha & Panha sp. nov. from Kampot and Takeo Provinces in southern Cambodia. Our discovery involves the first species of Sarika to be described from Cambodia in more than a century highlights the extent to which the diversity of Cambodian land snails remains to be discovered. The status of two species, Sarika benoiti (Crosse & Fischer, 1863) and Sarika resplendens (Philippi, 1846), is at present ambiguous because no material identifiable as these species was found in recent extensive surveys. Although S. bocourti was recently collected from Cambodia, its taxonomic position remained unclear due to a lack of living specimens. Detailed descriptions and illustrations of living animals, shell morphology and reproductive anatomy are provided, and a map showing their distributions is given.
Highlights
The genus Sarika Godwin-Austen, 1907 is classified in the family Ariophantidae Godwin-Austen, 1888 (Schileyko 2002)
GodwinAusten (1883: 110, pl. 26, fig. 2) first reported this species from Cambodia without a precise location. The description of this shell morphology agrees well with the typical S. resplendens from Myanmar, and we provide a brief description based on this specimen
The three species of Sarika recorded from Cambodia have remained unchanged for more than a century (Crosse & Fischer 1863; Fischer 1891; Fischer & Dautzenberg 1904)
Summary
The genus Sarika Godwin-Austen, 1907 is classified in the family Ariophantidae Godwin-Austen, 1888 (Schileyko 2002). The genital apparatus with its straight (or un-coiled) epiphallic caecum is considered to be a significant character that can separate Sarika from the sibling genus, Macrochlamys Gray, 1847 (Godwin-Austen 1907; Blanford & Godwin-Austen 1908; Schileyko 2002, 2003; Sutcharit & Panha 2008; Pholyotha et al 2018, 2020). The similarities of shell traits in different lineages suggest that taxonomic classification must take into account examination of the genitalia, which is usually accepted as more reliable than shell morphology (Solem 1966; Liew et al 2009; Hyman & Ponder 2010, 2016; Pholyotha et al 2018, 2020)
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