FURTHER CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE TAXONOMY AND BIOGEOGRAPHY OF THE SUBGENUS DUGESIA (PLATYHELMINTHES: TRICLADIDA: PALUDICOLA) IN THE MEDITERRANEAN REGION AND THE MIDDLE EAST

ABSTRACT Four new species of the subgenus Dugesia from the Mediterranean region and the Middle East are described: D. liguriensis from northern Italy, D. arcadia from the Peloponnesos (Greece), D. vestibularis (=D. cretica form C) from Iran and D. nansheae from Iraq. D. arcadia is closely related to D. minotauros and D. iranica while D. nansheae shows affinities with the oriental species of the subgenus. The distributional ranges of two known species are extended: D. minotauros, from Crete, is newly recorded from the Peloponnesos (Greece) and D. iranica, known from Iran and the Kopet-Dag region in the Soviet Union, is newly recorded from Turkey. With the reassessment of D. cretica, records of its occurrence in the Peloponnesos, Turkey, Iran and Israel are invalidated. D. cretica is known with certainty only from the Mediterranean islands of Crete, Tinos, Serifos and Cyprus, and also from Romania.