The taxonomic status of Lartetia cornucopia De Stefani, 1880 (Gastropoda, Prosobranchia)

The status of Lartetia cornucopia, an enigmatic stygobiont species described by De Stefani (1880), is revised. Shells consistent with the original description and live specimens found in the type locality (the valley of the Arbia River, northeast of Siena, Tuscany) made it possible to perform a detailed study which led to the tentative attribution of the species to the genus Alzoniella Giusti & Bodon, 1984. Giusti's (1975) previous identification of Lartetia cornucopia with a very similar shelled stygobiont species found by him in a nearby site (the Montagnola Senese, approximately 15 km west of the Arbia River) is consequently recognized to be incorrect. The Montagnola stygobiont, corresponding to a species from Prealpine Italy known since then with the name Lartetia virei Locard, 1903, was synonymized by Giusti (1975) with the older Lartetia cornucopia of De Stefani and moved to the genus Paladilhiopsis and thence by some to the genus Bythiospeum. Present evidence shows that this synonymy is incorrect and supports the revival of Locard's name, 'Bythiospeum' virei. © 1995 The Malacological Society of London.