Abstract

The minute freshwater snails of the family Cochliopidae Tryon, 1866 are scarcely known in Chile. From a taxonomic point of view, the species had been included in the genus Heleobia Stimpson, 1865 or mainly in the genus Littoridina Souleyet, 1852. Based in the detailed study of the penis morphology in snails obtained from several localities, including topotypes of a number of taxa, in the present work the species could be assigned mostly to Heleobia and thus we use tentatively this denomination hereafter. In general, the examined species could be well differentiated using morphological characters of the penis. In Chile 28 species of Heleobia and 10 subspecies have been recognized, 26 of which are endemic. The type materials of Heleobia deposited in the Museo Nacional de Historia Natural de Chile correspond to 19 taxa including holotypes, paratypes, lectotypes, syntypes, topotypes and samples.