Amphiscopus moolenbeeki, Ruud, A. Bank, Henk P. M. G Menkhorst & Eike Neubert, 2016

Ruud, A. Bank, Henk P. M. G Menkhorst & Eike Neubert, 2016, Descriptions of new and little-known land snail taxa from Turkey, and establishment of a new genus (Gastropoda, Pulmonata: Lauriidae, Enidae and Vitrinidae), Basteria 80 (1), pp. 5-30 : 20-22

Amphiscopus moolenbeeki spec. nov. ( Fig. 14)

Type locality & type material. – Turkey, Vilayet Tokat, Reşadiye, 8 km towards Çekerek, 770 m (40.1523°N 35.6320°E), H.P.M.G. Menkhorst leg., 19.vii.1990. Holotype NMBE 544668 , paratypes NMBE 544669/2, HMK/>50, RBA/3, RMNH/3, ZMH/3.

Diagnosis. – A large, highly turreted Amphiscopus species without a parietalis or palatalis superior.

Description. – Shell dextral, highly turreted, with an open, slit-like umbilicus. The 10.4-13.2 whorls are convex with a moderately deep suture. Teleoconch with widely spaced, fine, oblique striae; there are no spiral striae. Shell solid, not translucent, glossy, uniformly horny yellow coloured, with a prominent whitish band behind the peristome. Peristome not or hardly reflected (with the exception of the columellar part), thickened by a labial callus, the columellar and palatal insertion connected by a clearly visible callus which is quite thickened near the columellar peristome. The edge of the palatal insertion forms a wide arc. The dot-like to tear-like subangularis is connected with the palatal peristome by a thin callus. There is no parietalis, spiralis, palatalis superior, infrapalatalis, basalis or columellaris. The columellar ledge reaches halfway or above the middle of the columellar side of the aperture.

Measurements (n = 8). – H = 10.0-14.4 (mean 12.3); LWH = 4.0-4.8 (mean 4.3); MH = 2.6-2.9 (mean 2.7); LWD = 3.0-3.3 (mean 3.1); LWM = 2.9-3.3 (mean 3.1); MD = 1.9-2.2 (mean 2.1); NW = 10.4-13.2 (mean 11.9).

Localities. – Vilayet Tokat: type locality (see above); Reşadiye, 7.5 km towards Çekerek (HMK/1).

Derivatio nominis. - Named after our friend Rob(ert) Moolenbeek, who made numerous important malacological contributions and who curated the molluscan collection of the formerly Zoologisch Museum Amsterdam for decades (now integrated in the Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Leiden).

Remarks. – This taxon has been assigned to Amphiscopus because of the overall shape of the shell, the small aperture and the thickened peristome. So far, only the species sturmii and substurmii has been assigned Amphiscopus; therefore moolenbeeki is now the third known Amphiscopus species. It can be easily recognized from A. sturmii and A. substurmii by the characters mentioned in the diagnosis.