Description of a new genus and species as the first gastropod species from caves in Iran

Abstract

We report on a new stygobiont truncatelloid gastropod from the sulfidic ponds of Tashan Cave in the Zagros Mountains of Southwest Iran. The hydrogen sulfide habitat resembles those hitherto known for gastropods from sulfide-rich caves in Romania, Italy and Greece. The newly described genus Trogloiranica n. gen. with a newly described T. tashanica n. sp represent the first true stygobiont gastropods found in Iran. The phylogeny inferred from the mitochondrial (cy-tochrome oxidase subunit I) and the nuclear (histone 3) genomes, as well as anatomical evidence, place T. tashanica in the family Moitessieriidae Bourguignat, 1863. The new genus may represent an evolutionary relict from the post Miocene before the split of the families Moitessieriidae and Cochliopidae Tryon, 1866.