Recurrent founder-event speciation across the Mediterranean likely shaped the species diversity and geographic distribution of the freshwater snail genus Mercuria Boeters, 1971 (Caenogastropoda: Hydrobiidae).

Dispersal is known to play an important role in shaping the diversity and geographic range of freshwater gastropods. Here, we used phylogenetic methods to test for the influence of dispersal and other biogeographic processes (such as vicariance) on the speciation and distribution patterns of Mercuria Boeters, 1971, a snail genus widely distributed in the western Palaearctic. The 25 extant species traditionally thought to comprise the genus, which were described mainly on the basis of morphology, have been recorded from lowland waters in both the Mediterranean and Atlantic river basins of Europe and North Africa.