Iberus rhodopeplus (d'Aguilar Amat, 1925) Aguilar Amat, 1925

Liétor, José, Jowers, Michael J., Jódar, Pedro A., Galán-Luque, Inés & Tudela, Antonio R., 2025, Searching for the elusive imposter land snails. Description and geographical delimitation of two cryptic Iberus subspecies (Gastropoda, Stylommatophora, Helicidae) in southern Spain, Ruthenica, Russian Malacological Journal (London, England) 35 (1), pp. 1-19 : 12-14

Iberus rhodopeplus bastetanus ssp. nov.

( Figs 12–14 )

Zoobank registration urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:

2935FF39-0EF7-467C-890E-0CBED5C42A6C

Type material. Fig. 12 shows the holotype and paratypes of I. rhodopeplus bastetanus ssp. nov. ( I. rhodopeplus bastetanus hereinafter). Holotype and paratypes 1 to 3 are deposited in the Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales – CSIC (Madrid, Spain) whereas paratypes 4 to 8 are deposited in the private collection of Dr. José Liétor Gallego (Jaén,

Cryptic Iberus subspecies ( Gastropoda, Helicidae ) in southern Spain 13

Spain). The deposit reference for the holotype of I. rhodopeplus bastetanus is 15.05/200543. Those for the paratypes are 15.05/200544 and 15.05/200545. Table 5 shows some extra information about sizes and locations of I. rhodopeplus bastetanus types.

Type locality. Type locality for I. rhodopeplus bastetanus is located on sloping limestone walls within a Mediterranean scrubland at Picos del Guadiana , Huesa (Jaén, southern Spain), with the following coordinates: 37°44’51’’N, 3°06’20’’W .

Etymology. The Bastetans people were ancient inhabitants of Bastitania (part of the Iberian civilization), a region covering a significant area of the southeast of the Iberian Peninsula which matches the current distribution of I. rhodopeplus bastetanus.

Description. Basically, the same description may be applied to I. rhodopeplus bastetanus as for I. rhodopeplus rhodopeplus , with major shell diameter of I. rhodopeplus bastetanus ranging from 26 to 44 mm.

Series of conchological variability of I. rhodopeplus bastetanus can be checked in Fig. 13 .

Habitat. I. rhodopeplus bastetanus selects similar habitats to those of I. rhodopeplus rhodopeplus ranging from 51 m to 1,293 m a.s.l., being also one

Table 5. Location and basic morphometrics of holotype and paratypes assigned to I. rhodopeplus bastetanus. of the Iberus taxa with a wider ecological range ( Fig. 14 ). Due to the proximity of the semi-arid steppe of Baza and the Almería desert, I. rhodopeplus bastetanus is also highly adapted to xeric habitats devoid of arboreal vegetation in which refuges are provided by esparto grasslands and stony grounds.

Remarks. The ratio of banding patterns in the shells of I. rhodopeplus rhodopeplus and I. rhodopeplus bastetanus was found to be different at a metapopulation scale. Although the discontinuous band pattern is the most common in both species, while in I. rhodopeplus rhodopeplus 23% and 8% of shells show unbanded and continuous banded patterns, respectively, the same patterns involve 2% and 45% of the shells in I. rhodopeplus bastetanus.

Figures

FIG.12.Photographs of the holotype (H) and the 8 paratypes (P1 to P8) ofI. rhodopeplus bastetanus. The holotype corresponds with the sequenced sample I11.

FIG. 13. Series of conchological variation of I. rhodopeplus bastetanus. A, El Corral, Adra (Almería); B, Fondón (Almería); C, Castro de Filabres (Almería); D, La Calahorra Castle (Granada); E, Barranco de la Cueva, Soportújar (Granada); F, El Mencal de Pedro Martínez (Granada); G, Serrezuela de Jódar (Jaén); H, Rambla del Fontarrón, Larva to Cabra de Santo Cristo Rd (Jaén); I, Picos del Guadiana, Huesa (Jaén); J, Los Rosales, Quesada (Jaén); K, Alicún de Ortega (Granada); L, Cuenca village, Hinojares (Jaén).

FIG. 14. Some representative habitats and alive specimens of I. rhodopeplus bastetanus. A, Los Rosales, Quesada (Jaén); B, Cuenca village, Hinojares (Jaén); C, Rambla del Fontarrón, Larva to Cabra de Santo Cristo Rd (Jaén); D, Source of the River Beas, Beas de Granada (Granada); E, La Calahorra Castle (Granada); F, San Isidro Labrador Ermitage, El Corral, Adra (Almería).