Kunmingia, a New Genus of Triculinae (Gastropoda: Pomatiopsidae) from China

Résumé du livre

Anatomical studies of living Paraprososthenia kunmingensis Liu, Wang, and Zhang 1980 from Yunnan Province, China show that this species is the basis for a new genus, Kunmingia Davis and Kuo. Multivariate analyses including principal component analysis were done to assess the relationship of Kunmingia to potentially closely related genera, all of the triculine tribe Jullieniini, i.e. Karelainia, Hubendickia, and a species group placed by Brandt (1974) in the genus Paraprososthenia. Cladistic analyses included a non-computer mediated set theory solution and the computer mediated program PAUP of Swofford (1983). The outgroup used in PAUP was Tricula, i.e. T. aperta and T. bollingi. Kunmingia is justified as a distinct genus most closely related to Karelaninia, the genus of Jullieniini most closely related to taxa of the tribe Triculini. A new genus Neoprososthenia Davis and Kuo is erected to accommodate living species considered by Brandt (1974) to be Paraprososthenia. The type species of Paraprososthenia is a fossil from the Pleistocene of northern Burma with some shell characters seen in the genera Hydrorissoia, Karelainia, and Neoprososthenia. Species assigned to Neoprososthenia have shell character-states not seen in Paraprososthenia. As we will never know the anatomy of Paraprososthenia, it is essential to restrict this genus to the Pleistocene of northern Burma.