Melanoides thachi Huber

Bolotov, Ivan N., Konopleva, Ekaterina S., Vikhrev, Ilya V., Gofarov, Mikhail Y., Lopes-Lima, Manuel, Bogan, Arthur E., Lunn, Zau, Chan, Nyein, Win, Than, Aksenova, Olga V., Tomilova, Alena A., Tanmuangpak, Kitti, Tumpeesuwan, Sakboworn & Kondakov, Alexander V., 2021, Nominal taxa of freshwater Mollusca from Southeast Asia described by Dr. Nguyen N. Thach: A brief overview with new synonyms and fixation of a publication date, Ecologica Montenegrina 41 (1), pp. 73-83 : 83

Melanoides thachi Huber in Thach, 2020 [taxon inquirendum]

= Melanoides thachi Thach (2020a) : 23; pl. 5, figs 61–66.

Holotype: NCSM 113631 (North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences , Raleigh, North Carolina, United States of America).

Type locality: Inle Lake , Myanmar [approx. 20.55°N, 96.92°E, Salween River basin] .

Comments: It seems to be a junior synonym of the widespread and variable species Melanoides tuberculata (O. F. Müller, 1774) (see Annandale 1918b: 114, pl. 12, figs 1–2). It was shown that Melanoides tuberculata sensu lato represents a complex of distant phylogenetic lineages that cannot be separated by means of a morphological approach alone (Facon et al. 2003; Van Bocxlaer et al. 2015; Chiu et al. 2019). The validity of Melanoides thachi cannot be justified based on the original diagnosis, and hence we would consider it as taxon inquirendum until its full species status is reaffirmed using a body of more convincing evidences.