Biserta, Khalloufi & Béjaoui & Delicado, 2020

Khalloufi, Noureddine, Béjaoui, Mustapha & Delicado, Diana, 2020, Two new genera and three new subterranean species of Hydrobiidae (Caenogastropoda: Truncatelloidea) from Tunisia, European Journal of Taxonomy 648 (648), pp. 1-27 : 18

Genus Biserta gen. nov.

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:11183287-E4AD-4FBB-A304-E7BB699133AA

Type species

Biserta putealis sp. nov., by present designation.

Diagnosis

Shell small(maximum length 2mm), ovate-conic to elongate-conic, with obtuse and planispiral protoconch; whorls convex, with deep sutures. Penultimate whorl tall relative to remaining whorls. Aperture pyriform to ovate, complete, slightly angled on top and often fused to the body whorl. Umbilicus closed by inner lip. Operculum corneous, whitish to yellowish, thin, pliable, elongate-ellipsoidal, spiral, paucispiral, with submarginal nucleus. One pair of small triangular basal cusps on radular central tooth. Ctenidium well developed. Presence of bursa copulatrix; unpigmented renal oviduct with a spherical pouch at the end of the coiled section; two seminal receptacles. Penis attached to the neck behind the right eye with two glandular lobes closely positioned to one another, each of them bearing a terminal papilla.

Etymology

Biserta is one of the Latin names of Bizerte, name of the province where the genus was discovered; gender feminine.

Remarks

Biserta gen. nov. differs from the closely related genera Bullaregia and Belgrandiellopsis gen. nov. according to its larger shell umbilicus, two glandular lobes closely positioned to one another on the penis, slightly larger bursa copulatrix, shorter bursal duct and to its 8–8.9% COI sequence divergence.