Remark and differential diagnosis.

The confinement of this undoubtedly new species to a pulmonate family is not easy, because only a single, dead collected shell is available. Although it looks somewhat similar to species from the family Punctidae (with Punctum pygmaeum (Draparnaud, 1801) known from Turkey), we have decided to place it in Pristilomatidae because of the pale color of the shell.

Under a conchological point of view, a classification within the pristilomatid genus Lindbergia Riedel, 1959, would also be possible, as the two genera can only be differentiated by the anatomy of their genital organs (Riedel 1959, 1960). We here confine this species to the genus Vitrea Fitzinger, 1833, because of its overall conchological resemblance to other species comprised in this genus. An assignment to Oxychilus Fitzinger is less probable, as even the smallest species of Oxychilus are clearly larger than the new species.

Vitrea gostelii sp. n. differs from all Vitrea species known from Turkey by the presences of riblets and a spiral sculpture. It somewhat resembles Vitrea riedeliana, but the spire in Vitrea riedeliana is more elevated. Vitrea riedeli has a smooth shell with a wider umbilicus with a deeper suture.

This species was found during our survey in 2006 below a large limestone rock face of probably about 50 m of height. Probably, this species lives subterraneously, and a more targeted search in the accumulated soil of carstic crevices will yield some living specimens, which then will help to corroborate the taxonomic position of this new species.

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