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Thai limestone karsts are known to contain a rich biodiversity of animals, especially terrestrial snails, but still require further intensive exploration to evaluate their biodiversity. To date, only a few studies on the limestone karst-inhabiting land snail genera have been published. The present work focuses on the species diversity and phylogenetic relationships of the limestone karst-restricted land snail genus Aenigmatoconcha from Thailand, based on comparative morphology and molecular evidence. The results yielded three known species (A. clivicola Tumpeesuwan & Tumpeesuwan, 2017, A. sumonthai Tumpeesuwan & Tumpeesuwan, 2018, and A. mitis (Pfeiffer, 1863) comb. nov.), plus a new species (A. eunetis Pholyotha & Panha sp. nov). The phylogenetic analyses of partial fragments of the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase c subunit I (COI) gene confirmed the monophyly of all recognized species and congruence with the traditional morphology-based species designations. Average uncorrected p-distances of COI sequences between species were 9.7–12.0% and within species were 0.2–4.2%. This study also provides the re-description of penial sculpture, penial sheath, flagellum, penial caecum, and mantle lobe morphology that were neglected from the type species description. The present discovery of a new species increases the known diversity of Thai land snails and will support the conservation planning to protect karst biodiversity.
Taxonomic work on the land snail genus Sarika Godwin-Austen, 1907 in Cambodia is scarce. A total of three species were recognized from Cambodia prior to this study. However, their taxonomic descriptions were based mainly on shell morphology, with limited genital data. To address this knowledge gap, we opportunistically surveyed for land snails in Cambodia. Our inventory yielded four species of Sarika – one recognized species, Sarika bocourti (Morelet, 1875), from Battambang Province and three new species, Sarika khmeriana Pholyotha & Panha sp. nov., Sarika lactoconcha Pholyotha & Panha sp. nov. and Sarika nana Pholyotha & Panha sp. nov. from Kampot and Takeo Provinces in southern Cambodia. Our discovery involves the first species of Sarika to be described from Cambodia in more than a century highlights the extent to which the diversity of Cambodian land snails remains to be discovered. The status of two species, Sarika benoiti (Crosse & Fischer, 1863) and Sarika resplendens (Philippi, 1846), is at present ambiguous because no material identifiable as these species was found in recent extensive surveys. Although S. bocourti was recently collected from Cambodia, its taxonomic position remained unclear due to a lack of living specimens. Detailed descriptions and illustrations of living animals, shell morphology and reproductive anatomy are provided, and a map showing their distributions is given.