Description of 17 new species of Semisulcospiridae (Gastropoda: Cerithioidea) from southern China based on morphological and molecular evidence

Abstract

The genera Semisulcospira (Boettger, 1886), Koreoleptoxis (Burch & Jung, 1988) and Hua (Chen, 1943) in China exhibit extremely high diversity of species. In mid-2023, we collected a large number of species from the Semisulcospiridae in southern China. Based on morphological and molecular evidence, twelve new species from genus Hua, one from Koreoleptoxis and four from Semisulcospira were identified. The validity of Melania suifuensis (Chen, 1937) is also reinstated and transferred to genus Hua. This discovery contributes to our further understanding of the diversity of Semisulcospiridae species in China. Molecular analysis based on partial mitochondrial COI supports the systematic position of the new taxon.