Mercuria Boeters, 1971

Boeters, Hans D. & Falkner, Gerhard, 2017, The genus Mercuria Boeters, 1971 in France (Gastropoda: Caenogastropoda: Hydrobiidae). West-European Hydrobiidae, Part 13, Zoosystema 39 (2), pp. 227-261 : 230

Genus Mercuria Boeters, 1971

Mercuria Boeters, 1971: 175 . Type species: Amnicola confusa Frauenfeld, 1863 , by original designation. Declared nomen protectum vs Cyrniacana nomen oblitum under Art. 23.9 by Falkner et al., 2002: 76.

Cyrniacana Fagot, 1892: 23 [separatum: 138]. Type species: Amnicola lanceolata Paladilhe, 1869 , by monotypy. Declared nomen oblitum vs Mercuria nomen protectum under art. 23.9 by Falkner et al. 2002: 76; 1893: 253 [separatum: 22].

Similiana Fagot, 1892: 24 [separatum:139]. Invalid:junior homonym of Similiana Fagot, 1891 [ Chondrinidae ]; 1893: 253 [separatum: 22]. — Caziot 1910: 471, 541.

Anatiniana Fagot, 1892: 24 [separatum: 139]. Invalid: junior homonym of Anatiniana Bourguignat, 1881 [ Unionidae ]; 1893: 253 [separatum: 22] as Ataninana.

TYPE SPECIES. — Amnicola confusa Frauenfeld, 1863 , France, recent (by original designation).

REMARKS ON THE SYSTEMATIC POSITION OF MERCURIA When introducing the name Mercuria, Boeters (1971: 177) attributed the new genus to the family Hydrobiidae without assignment to one of the then accepted subfamilies. Some years later Thompson (1979: 47) placed Mercuria together with several other European genera in the redefined subfamily Nymphophilinae , but this concept of a European branch of the predominantly North American Nymphophilinae was either neglected or abandoned by European authors ( Giusti & Pezzoli 1985: 120; Bodon & Giusti 1991: 27; Bernasconi 1992: 6; Boeters 1998: 23). In a molecular genetic study which was based on mitochondrial and nuclear DNA sequences Wilke et al. (2000: 455, 456) obtained no clear postion of Mercuria within the Hydrobiidae , but formally still retained this genus within the Nymphophilinae . In a subsequent more comprehensive analysis Wilke et al. (2001: 9) could not assign Mercuria unambiguously to one of the anatomically defined and genetically corroborated subfamilies within the Hydrobiidae and for the first time expressed the supposition that Mercuria might belong to a new subfamily. In a monographic study on the Nymphophilinae Hershler et al. (2003: 362) did not definitely reject the attribution of Mercuria to this subfamily. They saw a sister or otherwise close relationship but at the same time they stressed the strong differentiation between North American and European faunas which may even date back to the opening of the North-Central Atlantic Ocean. Finally, with a larger data set Wilke et al. (2012: 718, fig. 2, 722) confirmed the position of Mercuria as an independent clade of the Hydrobiidae which, in their Bayesian tree, formed a strongly supported sister taxon to the Nymphophilinae . Consequentially with this publication we described a new monotypic subfamily for Mercuria .