Sorholia lescheræ (Bœters, 1981) |
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| Stygobiont, in underground rivers as well as in hyporheic habitats. Pyrénées-Atlantiques and Hautes-Pyrénées, in the upstream parts of the tributaries of Adour river. Original taxon: Moitessieria simoniana lescheræ. The species was named after the biospeleologist Françoise Lescher-Moutoué, from Moulis laboratory, who provided the author with the first specimens. The seventh whorl of the teleoconch is markedly uncoiled. Above: a shell from Les Aygues de Mélat, the emergences of the Bétharram cave-river. Altitude ≈ 320m. 2,9mm. |
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| Microsculpture made up of spiral alignments of numerous hollows, as often in Moitessieria. On this photography, the spirals run from top to bottom of the image. You can notice also the absence of a distinct longitudinal arrangement. Original picture provided by A. Bertrand (FR) – (CC BY-NC-SA). |
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| Same spot. Fresh specimen collected in sediments at one of the emergences of the river. 2,9mm. |
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| Les Aygues de Mélat are a group of karst springs that give birth to a rivulet that runs along the road at the foot of the hill. In the square, one of these springs, through which emerge the shells of the dead stygobionts that inhabit Bétharram cave-river. |
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| A variant, with constantly a less stretched seventh whorl, is found at Uthurbietta karst spring near Guessalia, Aussurucq, Pyrénées-Atlantiques. Altitude ≈ 230m. 2,6-2,6mm. |
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| The sculpture, made of alignments of numerous hollows, absent on proto (left detail), morphing into wider spiral stitchings (right detail) on the last whorl, is similar to that of lescherae s.s. |
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| The emergence of Uthurbietta in june, when the flow is low. |
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| A large and well preserved specimen found at Uthurbietta. 3mm. |
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| The aperture and the operculum in a drawing made by Marco Bodon, after some specimens collected in the type-locality. The large peg on the internal side of the operculum, mushroom-shaped, is so different from the usual apophyses found in the genus Moitessieria that it gave birth to the new genus Sorholia, named after the type-locality Tardets-Sorholus. |
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