Vestia lazarovii, Dedov, Ivaylo Kanev, 2012

Dedov, Ivaylo Kanev, 2012, Two new and rare mountain door-snails (Gastropoda, Pulmonata, Clausiliidae) from high mountain areas in Macedonia, ZooKeys 168, pp. 45-53 : 48-49

Vestia lazarovii sp. n. Fig. 3

Locus typicu.

Republic of Macedonia, Baba (= Pelister) Mountains near Kopanke hut, 41°01'59.7'N, 21°13'09.0'E, 1639 m a.s.l., Pinus peuce forestecotone,under logs of dead wood and fallen trunks, 03. September 2002, leg. S. Lazarov, (2 empty shells); from the same site, 16. June 2009, leg. I. K. Dedov (12 specimens, collected alive, dried).

Additional material.

Republic of Macedonia, Pelister (= Baba) Mountains, Palisnopje area, 1450 m a.s.l., Pinus peuce forestecotone, under logs and fallen trunks, 16. June 2009, leg. T. Mitev, (2 empty shells).

Type material.

holotype SMF 336343, paratypes (n = 13 specimens) SMF 336344/2 specimens; NMNHS/2 specimens; DED/MK 453/2 specimens; DED/MK 636/9 specimens; Pelister Mountains, Palisnopje area, 1450 m. a.s.l., DED/MK637/2 specimens).

Differential diagnosis.

This species differs from Vestia roschitzi (Brancsik, 1890) and Vestia ranojevici (Pavlovic, 1912) by the wide spiral turn of its inferior lamella; from Vestia elata (Rossmassler, 1836), Vestia gulo (E. Bielz, 1859) and Vestia turgida (Rossmassler, 1836) by the missing lunella.

Description of type series.

shell relatively small, spindle shaped, yellow-brownish coloured; whorls 8.5-9.5, including 2-2.5 smooth protoconch whorls; teleoconch ribbed (R = 38-54); aperture oval pear-shaped with a whitish, weekly reflected lip; a pale palatal callus present in some specimens; basal canal and keel missing; sinulus wide, not inclined to the shell axis; superior lamella connected with spiralis or close to it; inferior lamella turning widely-spirally; lunella and basalis missing; principal and upper palatal plica usually present; principal plica very short to about 1/3 of the last whorl; upper palatal plica short or missing; clausilium plate varying from hook-shaped in its end as is typical for Vestia , or with a weak hook and thin clausilium plate.

Etymology.

This species is named after the Bulgarian arachnologist Dr. Stoyan Lazarov-Panagyrsky, B. A. S., Institute of Zoology, who was the first to collect this species.

Distribution.

Vestia lazarovii sp. n. is currently only known from two sites at 1450 and 1650 m a.s.l. from the Pelister (= Baba) Mountains, Republic of Macedonia.

Ecology.

This species occurs in the Pinus peuce forest ecotone, under logs of dead wood near Kopanke hut, as well as in the Pinus peuce forest ecotone in the Palisnopje area, under logs and fallen trunks.

Comments.

The first species of genus Vestia to bereported from Macedonia ( Urbanski 1960) was Vestia ranojevici . Nordsieck (1974) reported it from the Osogovo Mountains, Kalin Kamen area, 1560 m a.s.l., Kriva Palanka district, near to the border with Bulgaria. Vestia lazarovii sp. n. is the second representative of the genus from the Republic of Macedonia and occurs relatively high up in the mountains (in coniferous forests and its ecotone) and is characterized by a quite strong reduction of the clausilium apparatus (reduced lunella, short principal and short or missing upper palatal plicae, missing basalis, somethimes very fine and thin clausilium plate with weakly developed hook at its end). A connection between superior and spiral lamellae is typical for the genus Vestia , so the specimens with disconnected superior and spiral lamellae could be also interpreted as showing initial reduction in this part of the clausilium apparatus.