The diversity and distribution of freshwater molluscs is poorly studied in the Republic of Georgia, due to the scarcity of field studies during the last 50 years. Here, we present the results of the first concerted investigation of freshwater mollusc biodiversity in the Javakheti Highlands, in the southern, mountainous region of Georgia. In total, we were able to collect 22 species from 42 sampling localities, including different kinds of freshwater habitats. Amongst the 22 collected species, 12 were recorded for the first time from Javakheti. From the newly-recorded species, Bathyomphalus contortus is a new country record, whose identity is supported by 16S rRNA sequence data.

This study provides the first attempt to investigate the molecular diversity of South Caucasian freshwater molluscs (Mollusca, Gastropoda) and lay down the first bricks to build up a DNA-barcode library. In total, 289 COI barcode sequences were obtained from 33 morpho-species belonging to 24 molluscan genera and 10 families that represent nearly 30% of known freshwater molluscan diversity of the South Caucasus region. DNA barcodes were analysed by means of the Barcode Index Number (BIN) and the other tools available in BOLD Systems. Results showed that the knowledge of freshwater molluscs diversity in the South Caucasus is far from comprehensive. For the studied 33 morpho-species, 289 barcodes were clustered into 40 BINs, from which unique BINs were defined for 12 species and five species were characterised with more than a single BIN. From the studied taxa, 60% were characterised larger than 2.2% sequence divergence indicating high genetic variation or cryptic diversity. Within our limited taxonomic coverage, we found one new species for the Republic of Georgia (Galba schirazensis) and at least three undescribed species belonging to the genera Stagnicola, Segmentina and Anisus. Uniqueness and high molecular diversity of the studied species emphasise the need for further intensive morphological and molecular investigations of the South Caucasian freshwater molluscan fauna.

The diversity and distribution of freshwater molluscs is poorly studied in the Republic of Georgia, due to the lack of field studies during the last 50 years. Here we present the results of the first concerted investigation of freshwater mollusc biodiversity in Javakheti Highlands, in the southern, mountainous region of Georgia. In total, we were able to collect 23 species from 42 sampling localities, including different kinds of freshwater habitats. Among the 23 collected species, 13 were recorded for the first time from Javakheti. From the newly recorded species, Bathiomphalus contortus is the new country record, whose identity is supported by 16S rRNA sequence data.

This study provides the first attempt to investigate the molecular diversity of South Caucasian freshwater molluscs (Mollusca, Gastropoda) and lay down the first bricks to build up a DNA-barcode library. In total 289 CO1 barcode sequences were obtained from 34 morpho-species belonging to 24 molluscan genera and 10 families that represent nearly 30% of known freshwater molluscan diversity of the South Caucasus region. DNA barcodes were analyzed by means of the Barcode Index Number (BIN) and the other tools available in BOLD system. Results showed that the knowledge of freshwater miolluscs diversity in the South Caucasus is far to be comprehensive. For the studied 34 morpho-species, 298 barcodes were clustered into 42 BINs from which unique BINs were defined for 14 species, and 6 species were characterized with more than a single BIN. From the studied taxa, 60% were characterized larger than 2.2% sequence divergence indicating the possibly high genetic variation or cryptic diversity. Within our limited taxonomic coverage, we found one new species for the republic of Georgia (Galba schirazensis), and at least three undescribed species taxa belonging to genera Stagnicola, Segmentina and Anisus. Uniqueness and high molecular diversity of the studied species emphasizing the need for further intensive morphological and molecular investigation of the South Caucasian freshwater molluscan taxa.