New species of aquatic snail discovered from Haa

A new aquatic snail species named as Erhaia norbui is discovered from Uesu, Haa at 2700 meters above sea level. The study paper is published in the ZooKeys February 2022 issue. 

The shell is pale greyish with a globular body whorl and a roundish aperture. The tiny snail was discovered and collected by Sangay Norbu working at the Bhutan Livestock Development Corporation (BLDC) in the spring of 2020. Since then, the snail samples were jointly studied by a team from the National Biodiversity Centre (NBC), Naturalis Biodiversity Centre in the Netherlands, and Justus Liebig University Giessen in Germany. The description of the new snail samples were carried out based on the molecular (DNA) and morphological studies. The snail is named after Sangay Norbu, who discovered the species. With this addition, Bhutan has now four species of Erhaia species and around 78 recorded snail species. The discovery indicates the good health of the ecosystem in the country. The type specimens are deposited at the National Invertebrates Repository at the National Biodiversity Centre in Serbithang, Thimphu.