Abstract
The Balkan genus Spelaeodiscus Brusina, 1886 is revised based on museum collections and newly collected samples from Montenegro and Albania. The following species and subspecies are introduced as new to science: Spelaeodiscus albanicus edentatus Páll-Gergely & P. L. Reischütz, ssp. n. (southern Montenegro and northern Albania), Spelaeodiscus densecostatus Páll-Gergely & A. Reischütz, sp. n., Spelaeodiscus hunyadii Páll-Gergely & Deli, sp. n., Spelaeodiscus latecostatus Páll-Gergely & Erőss, sp. n. (all three from southern Montenegro), Spelaeodiscus unidentatus acutus Páll-Gergely & Fehér, ssp. n., and Spelaeodiscus virpazarioides Páll-Gergely & Fehér, sp. n. (both from northern Albania). For all species and subspecies diagnoses and suggestions for conservation status assessments according to IUCN criteria are provided. An overview is given regarding the habitat preference of Spelaeodiscus species, and the “scratch and flotate” method to collect subterranean gastropods.
Highlights
Spelaeodiscus was described by Brusina (1886) as a subgenus of Patula Held, 1838
Spelaeodiscus is currently known from the Western Balkans (Slovenia, Montenegro, and northern Albania)
As there are several known locations and no reason to suppose that the habitat quality, habitat extent or population are deteriorating or extremely fluctuating, it was assessed as Least Concern (LC) by Reischütz (2017b)
Summary
Spelaeodiscus was described by Brusina (1886) as a subgenus of Patula Held, 1838. At that time, the only species in this group was P. (S.) hauffeni (Schmidt, 1855). In the 1960’s Bole (1961, 1965) and Gittenberger (1969) introduced three additional species as follows: S. unidentatus Bole, 1961, S. obodensis Bole, 1965 and S. dejongi Gittenberger, 1969 The former two were described from present day Montenegro, whereas S. dejongi was originally reported from Slovenia. Spelaeodiscus is currently known from the Western Balkans (Slovenia, Montenegro, and northern Albania). Gittenberger (1969) recognized a single species, Spelaeodiscus (Aspasita) triaria, and treated the other taxa as its subspecies (trinodis, triadis, tatricus). Another Aspasita species, A. bulgarica Subai & Dedov, 2008, has been described recently from Bulgaria. In the present revision we present the outcome of the examination of all available historical and newly collected material
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