Populations of Microcondylaea Bonellii (Férussac 1827), Unionidae – An European Freshwater Mussel at Rapid Decline - And Unio Mancus in Istria, Croatia

Abstract

Microcondylaea bonelli (Férussac 1827) inhabits rivers in the northern and eastern region of the adriatic sea. Actual IUCN conservation status is VU (vulnerable), it is listed in Annex V of the Flora-Fauna-Habitat directive of the EU. Due to construction works, frequent severe flooding and habitat changes the species is in rapid decline in its whole area. Conservation status should therefore be altered to CR (Critically Endangered) and the habitats of the remaining populations especially in Croatia managed to stop the decline.

Taxonomic Reassessment of Freshwater Mussels from the Western Balkans Reveals an Overlooked but Critical Refugium and Defines Conservation Priorities

“…Distribution: Albania, Croatia, Italy, Montenegro, and Slovenia [7,9,10,60]. There is a doubtful historical record from Lake Trichonis, Greece [9]. In Montenegro, we re-discovered this species for the first time since 1909 [57].…”

“…The distribution maps for each species were created using ESRI ArcGIS v. 10 software, Redlands, California, USA (www.esri.com/arcgis, accessed on 10 June 2022). Additional occurrence data were obtained from published sources [7,9,10,[32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42], as well as from the following museum collections: NCSM Mollusk Collection (North Carolina State Museum of Natural Sciences, Raleigh, NC, USA) [43], SMF Mollusca Collection (Senckenberg Museum, Frankfurt, Germany) [44], Musée d'histoire naturelle (MHNN Collection, Neuchâtel, Switzerland) [45] and Biologiezentrum Linz (Linz, Austria) [46].…”

“…Distribution: Albania, Croatia, Italy, Montenegro, and Slovenia [7,9,10,60]. There is a doubtful historical record from Lake Trichonis, Greece [9].…”

“…Endemic lineages of freshwater mussels were determined using the DNA sequence data that allow for solving the taxonomic uncertainty of local endemics, which were described on the basis of morphological data alone. These local endemic taxa may represent divergent intraspecific lineages of widely distributed species [8] or local endangered endemic species [7,9,10]. Therefore, the detection of endangered populations and the assessment of the current status of regional freshwater mussel assemblages should be considered important goals for biological studies.…”

Fresh- and Brackish-Water Cold-Tolerant Species of Southern Europe: Migrants from the Paratethys That Colonized the Arctic

“…Finally, the species Microcondylaea bonellii (Férussac, 1827) is the only species of its genus, whose range is restricted to the river systems of the northern and eastern parts of the Adriatic Sea [99,103,104], and the genus Leguminaia Conrad, 1865, closely related to it, consists of two extant species that occur in Western Asia, in the Orontes and Euphrates river basins [101,105]. These two genera form a sister group to the genus Sinosolenaia Bolotov, Kondakov, Konopleva, and Vikhrev, 2021 widespread in East Asia [106,107].…”