The descriptions of the two new additions to the European snail fauna, named Cochlostoma komarnica and Cochlostoma dobrido, have been published today in the open-access Biodiversity Data Journal.

The elegant snails, which do not yet have English names, have conical shells of around 6 mm long and live on limestone rocks, where they graze algae and lichens. Unlike most land snails, they do not carry their eyes on the end of eye-stalks, but on the sides of their head. And their shells come with a circular disk stuck to the animal’s tail that can close off the shell like a door.

The snails were discovered by the teams of Taxon Expeditions, which run real scientific expeditions that anyone can join. Between 2018 - 2025, expeditions in Montenegro were organised as a collaboration of Taxon Expeditions, the non-profit Taxon Foundation, and local partners from the Montenegrin Ecologists Society.

Mixed teams of international researchers, citizen scientists, local students, and conservationists studied the biodiversity of Durmitor National Park and Komarnica Canyon. The new snails were found at several sites during fieldwork in the rugged mountainous terrain, but their novelty only became clear once they were dissected and genetically analysed in the field laboratory.

During a voting session at camp, the team decided to name the species after the localities in which they had been discovered: “Cochlostoma dobrido,” after the Dobri Do Plateau, which lies between the peaks of Durmitor National Park, and “Cochlostoma komarnica,” after the stunning but unprotected Komarnica Canyon, south of Durmitor.

"I was amazed that it is still possible to discover new animal species in Europe," says musician Janine Buisman from The Netherlands, who joined one of the expeditions and co-authored the paper.

Another author, biologist Jovana Đokić of the Montenegrin Ecologists Society (MES), explains that the rich biodiversity in the canyons, mountains, and gorges of this part of the Balkans is still largely unexplored and undiscovered.

It is all the more worrying that the Komarnica Canyon is targeted to be flooded by a hydropower dam and reservoir. This will destroy this wild river canyon and all the biodiversity in it, including many species still unknown to science.

- Jovana Đokić

Because of these threats, Komarnica Canyon has become a focus for structured biodiversity surveys, part of an effort to build a science-based case for its conservation. That is why MES is calling for the canyon to be included in the UNESCO World Heritage site of Durmitor and for the hydropower project's plans to be scrapped. "Hydropower is neither green nor sustainable energy when it destroys a unique ecosystem like this," says Đokić.

YouTube video of the species: https://youtu.be/Kuv8S5JK8sU?si=0eZLtiJfoWQuAeEl