Margarya

Margarya is a genus of large operculate freshwater snails, aquatic gastropod molluscs in the family Viviparidae.

==Taxonomy== The genus Margarya was described by Nevill (1877) based on shells of the type species collected by A.R. Margary from Lake Erhai, the type locality of Margarya melanioides. Based on shell and radular morphology, Tchang & Tsi (1949) revised this genus for the first time and recognized seven distinct species. He created two subgenera of Margarya, viz Tchangmargarya and Mabillemargarya. The first molecular phylogeny showed that the genus Margarya is polyphyletic and divided into three distinct clades. Combining study of comparative morphology and molecular phylogeny, Zhang et al. revised the systematics of Margarya and recognized eight genuine extant species. However, only four species were found belonging to Margarya s. str., the rest species belonging to distinct genus Tchangmargarya or Anularya.