The land snail genus Helix comprises large gastropods distributed in from France to Iran and in North Africa. Some of them have close linkage to humans - are synanthropic or are collected and consumed. The genus is most diverse in eastern Mediterranean. Taxonomy of the genus is now being revised from morphological point of view, and a molecular study is needed as a counterpart to that study. Here I present first phylogenetic data for the genus Helix, including almost all currently recognised species. I have used samples from various sources including dried bodies and tissue remnants. I have sequenced two commonly used mitochondrial markers (16S, COI). Position of the genus within Helicidae cannot be inferred from the dataset. The genus should be delimited in a strict sense, excluding genera Maltzanella, Cantareus, Cryptomphalus and Lindholmia. Division into subgenera, as proposed by various authors until now, is not supported with the exception of a split between subgenera Pelasga and the nominotypical Helix. Relationships between species and their groups are poorly resolved. Regarding species limits, the data are largely in agreement with new opinions based on morphology. There might be surprisingly high variability in shell characters within a species, as few morphologically characteristic taxa seem to be...
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:nusl.cz/oai:invenio.nusl.cz:322755 |
| Date | January 2013 |
| Creators | Korábek, Ondřej |
| Contributors | Juřičková, Lucie, Horáček, Ivan |
| Source Sets | Czech ETDs |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | info:eu-repo/semantics/masterThesis |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/restrictedAccess |
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