Imeretiopsis Grego & Mumladze, 2020

Grego, Jozef, Mumladze, Levan, Falniowski, Andrzej, Osikowski, Artur, Rysiewska, Aleksandra, Palatov, Dimitry M. & Hofman, Sebastian, 2020, Revealing the stygobiotic and crenobiotic molluscan biodiversity hotspot in Caucasus: Part I. The phylogeny of stygobiotic Sadlerianinae Szarowska, 2006 (Mollusca, Gastropoda, Hydrobiidae) from Georgia with descriptions of five new genera and twenty-one new species, ZooKeys 955, pp. 1-77 : 1

Genus Imeretiopsis Grego & Mumladze gen. nov.

Type species.

Imeretiopsis prometheus Grego & Palatov, sp. nov.

Species assigned to the genus.

I. prometheus Grego & Palatov, sp. nov., I. gorgoleti Grego & Mumladze, sp. nov., I. nakeralaensis Grego & Mumladze, sp. nov., I. cameroni Grego & Mumladze, sp. nov., I. iazoni Grego & Mumladze, sp. nov.

Diagnosis.

The general shell morphology of the new genus is similar to some stygobiotic genera from the Balkans ( Paladilhiopsis Pavlović, 1913; Iglica A. J. Wagner, 1910), Middle Europe ( Bythiospeum Bourguignat, 1882) and Southeast Asia ( Pseudoiglica Grego, 2018). The main conchological difference distinguishing the new genus from Caucasopsis gen. nov., is the sinuated labral profile. The penis long, without the filament characteristic of Caucasopsis , but with two broad outgrowths on its left side.

Etymology.

Name is derived from the Imereti (იმერეთი) region, where the type locality and the known distribution of the genus are located. The suffix - iopsis refers to the resemblance to the shells of the Balkan genus Paladilhiopsis Pavlović, 1913. Its gender is feminine.

Distribution.

The genus Imeretiopsis gen. nov. is known from the Imereti and West Racha regions of Georgia (Fig. 10 ).

Figures

Figure 10. Distribution map of Imeretiopsis gen. nov.: (magenta dots) and Caucasopsis gen. nov. (blue dots) 6 I. cameroni sp. nov. and I. iazoni sp. nov. 7 Imeretiopsis prometheus sp. nov. 8 I. nakeralaensis sp. nov. 9 I. gorgoleti sp. nov. 0 Caucasopsis orientalis (Starobogatov, 1962), C. subovata (Starobogatov, 1962) and C. pulcherrima (Starobogatov, 1962) 3 C. shadini (Starobogatov, 1962) 4 C. aculeus (Starobogatov, 1962) and C. schakuranica (Starobogatov, 1962) 22, 23 C. egrisi sp. nov. 24 C. olsavskyi sp. nov. 25, 30, 31 C. letsurtsume sp. nov.