Door Snails, Clausiliidae, are a small, elongate and often left spiraling Pulmonate Land Snails. They get their name from their possession of a structure called a clausilium, which is used to close the aperture of the shell when the Snail's body is withdrawn, forming a sort of 'door'.
In a paper published in the journal Ruthenica on 8 September 2017, Igor Solodovnikov of the Department of Zoology at the Vitebsk State P.M. Masherov University, and Miklós Szekeres of the Institute of Plant Biology of the Biological Research Centre of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, describe three new species of Door Snails from the Bzyb Mountains of Abkhazia (an autominous region in northwest Georgia, recognised as an independent state by Russia, but few other countries).
The first new species is placed in the genus Acrotoma, and given the specific name likharevi, in honour of the late Ilya Likharev, for his work on Door Snails. The shells of this species are 19.5–23.8 mm in length and is purple-brown in colour with 5.3-6.7 flattened whorls separated by separated by a whitish suture. The species is found on limestone cliffs and boulders.
Acrotoma likharevi, specimen 21.1 mm. Solodovnikov & Szekeres (2017).
The second new species is also placed in the genus Acrotoma, and given the specific name reshaviensis, meaning 'from Reshavie' in reference to the Reshava River, the species having been discovered near the headwaters of that river. The shells of this species are 13.8–18.7 mm in length, and is purple-brown in colour with 5.7 to 6.3 whorls. This species is also found on limestone cliffs and boulders.
Acrotoma reshaviensis, specimen 17.3 mm. Solodovnikov & Szekeres (2017).
The third new species is placed in the genus Micropontica, and given the specific name olgae, in honour of Olga Solodovnikova, the elder daughter of Igor Solodovnikov. The shells of this species are 13.1–14.1 mm in length, and reddish-brown in colour with 3.3 to 14.3 bulging whorls, and a surface covered by sharp, wide spaced whitish ribs that gradually become weaker and denser toward the narrow apex. This species is also found on limestone cliffs and boulders.
Micropontica olgae, specimen 13.1 mm. Solodovnikov & Szekeres (2017).
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