Vinarski M.V. 2012. The Lymnaeid genus Catascopia Meier-Brook et Bargues, 2002 (Mollusca: Gastropoda: Lymnaeidae), its synonymy and species composition // Invertebrate Zoology. Vol.9. No.2: 91–104 [in English].
Museum of Siberian Aquatic Molluscs, Omsk State Pedagogical University, 14 Tukhachevskogo Emb., Omsk, 644099, Russian Federation; e-mail: radix.vinarski@gmail.com
doi: 10.15298/invertzool.09.2.02
KEY WORDS: molecular taxonomy, synonymy, Lymnaeidae, Catascopia, Ladislavella, Polyrhytis.
ABSTRACT: The lymnaeid genus Catascopia Meier-Brook et Bargues, 2002 with the type species Limnaea catascopium Say, 1817 was emerged on the basis of molecular data exclusively. It contains at least four species distributed in the Holarctic region. However, as many as three generic names older than Catascopia are available for the designation of the lymnaeid clade including L. catascopium: Polyrhytis Meek, 1876, Ladislavella B. Dybowski, 1913, and Walterilymnaea Starobogatov et Budnikova, 1976. It is shown that the name Ladislavella should be used for this purpose rather than the oldest one, Polyrhytis, since the latter is based on the fossil species and it is impossible to establish the molecular affinity of its type species with recent lymnaeids. Two new synonymies are proposed: Catascopia = Ladislavella syn.n. and Catascopia = Walterilymnaea syn.n.). Morphologically, there are two distinct groups of species within Ladislavella: one includes species distributed in Northern Eurasia, and other contains species distributed in North America and the Asian part of the Beringia. The conchological and anatomical differences between these groups allow to consider them as two subgenera of Ladislavella: Ladislavella s.str. (type species Leptolimnaea terebra var. sorensis W. Dybowski, 1913 = Limnaea palustris var. terebra Westerlund, 1885), and Walterilymnaea (type species Limnaea catascopium Say, 1817).