Viviparus lomejkoi brevis Popovic , 1970 non ( Tournouer , 1876)

Neubauer, Thomas A., Harzhauser, Mathias, Kroh, Andreas, Elisavet, Georgopoulou & Mandic, Oleg, 2014, Replacement names and nomenclatural comments for problematic species-group names in Europe's Neogene freshwater Gastropoda. Part 2, ZooKeys 429, pp. 13-46 : 26

Taxon classification Animalia ORDO FAMILIA

Viviparus lomejkoi brevis Popovic, 1970 non ( Tournouer, 1876)

Viviparus (Viviparus) lomejkoi brevis Popović, 1970: 318, figs 1: 7, 7a, 8 [non Paludina (Vivipara) brusinai brevis Tournouër, 1876].

Type locality.

Gjurakovc (= Đurakovac), Kosovo.

Age.

Late Pliocene to Early Pleistocene (= "Levantin").

Holotype.

Collection de l'Institut de recherches géologiques et géophysiques de Belgrade, no number indicated.

Discussion.

Tournouër (1876) introduced Paludina (Vivipara) Brusinai var. brevis from the Early Pleistocene of Kos Island. Both genus-group names stated by Tournouër (1876) are, however, invalid. Paludina Férussac, 1812 is a junior objective synonym of Viviparus Montfort, 1810 ( ICZN 1959, Op. 573) and Vivipara represents an incorrect subsequent spelling ( Melville and Smith 1987, p. 185). The species-group name brevis in combination with Viviparus as introduced by Popović (1970) is therefore a homonym of Viviparus brevis ( Tournouër, 1876). The latter taxon was elevated to species level by Willmann (1977); for thorough description, synonymy list, and discussion see Willmann (1981, p. 151).

Still we refrain from introducing a replacement name, because the taxonomic status of this subspecies is highly doubtful. It greatly resembles the nominal species Viviparus lomejkoi Pavlović, 1932 from Crmljan and Orahovac (like the type locality Gjurakovc in the Metohia Basin). The only difference is the stronger degree of whorl stepping, which is not documented by Pavlović's original description and illustrations. This is regarded to fall into intraspecific variability, why we suggest synonymizing Viviparus lomejkoi brevis with Viviparus lomejkoi . If, however, another author keeps both forms separate, a replacement name has to be introduced.