Genus Plagigeyeria Tomlin, 1930

Type species: Geyeria plagiostoma A. J. Wagner, 1914

Diagnosis

The genus is represented by solid shells with rather thick walls and expanded, outward reflexed labrum with mostly sinuated lateral profile and sinuated columellar margin, by teleoconch surface covered with weaker or coarser, sometimes sinuated regular axial ribs diagonally cross-connected by weaker or coarser crenate spiral lamellae, by cancellated nepionic whorl covered by fine, very close-set axial riblets cross-sected with closely set spiral ribs, by protoconch surface covered by fine irregularly crenated spiral riblets with crenated or malleated inter-rib spaces and malleated nucleus.

Anatomy

The anatomy of Plagigeyeria montenegrina Bole, 1961 from Obodska Pećina, Rijeka Crnojevića, Montenegro was described by Bole 1970 (p. 105–106, fig. 7C).

Distribution

The distribution of Plagigeyeria in the studied area represents a hotspot within the Neretva and South Bosnia River drainage basins ranging from Ilidža near Sarajevo southwards to Mostar, Tihaljina and Trebinje (Fig. 18). The closest adjacent distribution of the genus represents a second distribution hotspot at the basin of river Zeta, Kotor Bay and Skadar Lake Basin (as a part of Drin River drainage basin). A third smaller distribution area is isolated in northwest Kosovo (Peja) and Northeast Albania (Krumë) in the Drin drainage basin. Single species are known from, west and east Serbia, Bulgaria, as well as from South Albania. The single species from France likely represents a different genus, as well as the two species from Western Greater Caucasus assigned to Plagigeyeria (Starobogatov 1962), which belong to a different unrelated new genus (Grego et al. in press).

Remarks

The current understanding of the genus gathers many similar morphotypes from a very wide geographical range from France to southwestern Caucasus. Herein we focus on the species of Plagigeyeria from the studied area only, sharing the general shell morphology features with the type species so their assignment to the genus is convincing.