Monacha solitudinis Bourguignat 1852

shell medium sized, spire depressed; protoconch consists of 2 smooth whorls; shell colour light brown to yellowish brown with a white spiral band at the periphery of the last whorl; teleoconch with a malleate sculpture and fine axial riblets; suture deep, simple; teleoconch with up to seven densely coiled whorls; last whorl slightly bending towards the aperture; aperture broadly subrectangular, reinforced by a small white lip; peristomial rim sharply bounded, simple; umbilicus open, cylindrical, a triangular columellar callus is indicated. Genital organs (Figs 12a, b): The only specimen that could be investigated was quite strongly contracted; it is a species of Monacha sensu str., because the genitalia show an appendicula, but the penial retractor muscle is missing. Penis very short (0.8 mm), penial papilla large, stout with a central perforation completely filling the atrial lumen (preservation artefact?), basis of the papilla with a strong collar (Fig. 12b); epiphallus a thick-walled tube, its lumen filled with several finely crenulated pilasters (1.9 mm); flagellum short (2.1 mm), but surmounting the length of the epiphallus; appendicula (4.9 mm) branching off the atrium, subdivided in a thicker basal part, and a shorter part with a narrower lumen; two glandulae mucosae poorly ramified, inserting in the middle of the vagina; vesicle of bursa copulatrix large, hammer-like, pedunculus quite long (4.7 mm); atrial lumen with two pilasters, one of them large, knob-like, the other narrow and elongate; right ommatophoran retractor passes left to the genital organs. Measurements. Syntype figured: H = 9.2; D = 14.6; PH = 4.81; PD = 7.92. Fig. 14: H = 7.28; D = 13.31; PH = 4.34; PD = 7.32.

This species has only been recorded from two localities in Lebanon so far. The type locality Baalbek is not too far away and they were probably collected on the way towards Baalbek. Both new localities are in the central chain of Mt. Lebanon at high altitudes. The habitats are characterised by coarse limestone boulders with interspersed subalpine grassland vegetation and is covered by snow during winter. In October 2011, two living animals were found actively crawling over the rocks (ca. 10°C and heavy rainfall), while in August 2008, only dead shells were encountered.