Revealing the Stygobiotic and Crenobiotic Molluscan Diversity in the Caucasus: Part IV—Crenobiotic Belgrandiellinae Radoman, 1983 (Mollusca, Hydrobiidae) from Georgia

Abstract

Since 2020, the south-western Caucasus has been recognized as a hotspot of stygobiotic Mollusca diversity after revealing a large number of new, range-restricted species within the spring snail family Hydrobiidae, subfamily Sadlerianinae sensu Szarowska. Meantime, based on extensive material collected in the south-western Caucasus during the last decades, we studied members of another spring snail subfamily Belgrandiellinae Radoman, 1983. Modern integrative taxonomic work revealed hitherto unknown diversity within this subfamily in the region and further proved the importance of the south-western Caucasus as a hotspot of stygobiotic life. In particular, the subterranean environment and springs of Georgia were known to be inhabited by the genus Tschernomorica Vinarski and Palatov, 2019 with four nominal species. Our research, based on a morpho-anatomical study and genetic investigation of COI/H3 mitochondrial/nuclear markers, revealed additionally seven species and three genera new to science—Colchiella lugella gen. et sp. nov., C. nazodelavo gen. et sp. nov., C. shiksa gen. et sp. nov., C. dadiani gen. et sp. nov., Sataplia cavernicola gen. et sp. nov., Aetis starobogatovi gen. et sp. nov., and Tschernomorica kopidophora sp. nov. —to inhabit the Georgian part of south-western Caucasus. The full taxonomic description of each new taxa, along with the review of habitat characteristics and conservation status, is provided. Molecular genetics suggests that the ancestors of Caucasian Belgrandiellinae have migrated from south-western Europe, probably more than once during the late Messinian and early Pliocene periods. Later, Plio-Pleistocene climate oscillations, particularly the repeated rise and fall of the Black Sea water level, resulted in the isolation and radiation of various lineages within the Caucasus and Crimea.