Hello! I am looking for info (published literature, grey literature, or also any personal observation that you may have had) about the current -- or at least most up-to-date -- geographical distribution of the planorbid snail Planorbarius corneus L. in Europe. This species seems on the decline in many areas, though where still found it occurs in high numbers. Myself, I haven't seen a single individual (not even as an empty shell) anywhere in central Italy in the past ten years at least, though it was a common sight just 20-25 years ago. Info about any change in the past 20-30 years (or less) would be greatly welcome to try to understand the reasons behind the apparent decline of this otherwise very sturdy species. Published work would be especially welcome, as I'm trying to get my experimental results on Planorbarius published. Thanks a lot!!
Hi, I recorded it in recent years in the lower Shannon river system in Ireland. It is not native here, but relatively widespread now. See: http://www.habitas.org.uk/molluscireland/species.asp?ID=140 for more info on the Irish situation, including link to distribution map hosted by the National Biodiversity Data Centre. Maria
Ciao Paola - Non posso indicarti fonti bibliografiche, ma ti invio i dati dei campioni che ho in collezione. Spero ti siano utili. Fammi sapere
Gianluigi
Here you find the Belgian records that are checked by a specialist
http://waarnemingen.be/soort/maps/8313?from=2014-03-11&to=2015-03-11&count_ex=0&only_valid=0&only_valid=1&grid=5000&kwart=0&st=&second_specie=
and the records for Europe in observado.org (not checked by a specialist)
http://observation.org/soort/maps/8313?from=2004-03-11&to=2015-03-11&count_ex=0&only_valid=0&grid=50000&kwart=0&st=&second_specie=
kind regards,
Hans
Thanks everybody for your input, very much appreciated! Also thanks in advance to anybody who will add more answers to my question. -P.
Hi Paola,
Planorbarius corneus is really common in the Netherlands and I found it in most slow flowing ponds/streams with macrophytes present during fieldwork, especially associated with Lemna. The Dutch handbook for freshwater mollusks (see citation below) gives a distribution map from the situation in 1970 in which it was apparently already common, and a distribution map from 1970-1997 in which it is even more abundant. So perhaps it increased in abundance since 1970 in the Netherlands, or perhaps the monitoring has improved in the last decades. In 2004 it was described as "In the Netherlands common". Hope this adds some information to your search!
Good luck,
Casper
The handbook:
GITTENBERGER, E., A. W. JANSSEN, W. J. KUIJPER, J. G. KUIPER, T. MEIJER, G. VAN DER VELDE, AND J. N. DE VRIES. 2004. De Nederlandse zoetwatermollusken. Recente en fossiele weekdieren uit zoet en brak water. 2nd edition. European Invertebrate Survey-Nederland, Nationaal Natuurhistorisch Museum Naturalis, KNNV Uitgeverij, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
It is widely distributed in the Shannon with it being common in certain sheltered localities associated with macrophytes. It may also occur in shallow water charophyte meadows on stones. It is very often occurring in the shetered shallows behind Phragmites and Shoenoplectus. If material for DNA stusies is required material from Ireland can be provided, Dan
Planorbarius corneus is a very common species at least in northern Germany where it occupy stagnant water bodies like lakes and ponds and slow running waters mainly at the edge of the amphibian zone.
Attached you will find a very short cut of our results from the last 30 years in records of P. corneus in northern Germany.
Several years ago we published our data (molluscs distribution in MV) in a book. It is written in German.
Zettler, M.L., Jueg, U., Menzel-Harloff, H., Göllnitz, U., Petrick, S., Weber, E., Seemann, R. 2006: Die Land- und Süßwassermollusken Mecklenburg-Vorpommerns. Obotritendruck Schwerin: 318pp
Best ergards
Michael
I should add. It would seem that this snail could be considered to be a cryptogenic species as it was first found in Ireland in the late1800s. Its distribution follows that of an expansion from Belfast and Dublin westwards. So it is very likely to be a human introduction. However, look at Baker (1945) The Molluscan Family Planorbidae. He discusses the spread of this genus through a Caribbean Island chain. This implicates birds in dispersal. In the case for Ireland one wonders why if it was found only from the 1890s (and is a conspicuous species) why did birds not transfer this snail beforehand since the last glaciation. So while not absolutely certain to have been introduced to this island by humans, it would seem to be the case. The Biodiversity Ireland www has a distribution and to this there are further records I have found on the Shannon, which I indicated earlier. Dan
I found it in a wetland of Brittany and used it in a publication last year ( Santonja et al. 2018: How shredder invertebrate identity mediates their responses to the litter quality and microbial conditioning in the leaf litter recycling in aquatic environment. Ecology and Evolution, 8: 2542-2553).
Sorry this publication is not focussed on this species or on it distribution.
I have been studying freshwater aquatic invertebrates in the Netherlands since about 1992 and there seems to be no evidence that this species is declining in our country. There is no publication about this but I can have a look in our database if there is any decline in records. To my knowledge this species is very common here for decades.
It is widespread in the Urals and Western Siberia. I've found P. corneus in W. Siberia northward to the Arctic Circles (though it is most abundant in the southern part of this region). P. corneus demonstrates no signs of decline in Asiatic Russia.
In South Montenegro especially around the Lake Skadar it is a rather common species
In the Northeastern Hungararian lowlands it is common and widespread.
Hi, for the Czech Republic, you can see the map here: http://mollusca.sav.sk/malacology/maps/planorbarius-corneus.jpg
Libor
In Kaliningrad region Russia it is a usual and common specimen, a lot of examples in ditches near Curonian Lagoon and all over the region.
During the research for my PhD in 1973, I collected P.corneus from several sites near Manchester in North West England. There was not sufficient data to publish. However, I have collected the relevant pages from the thesis. They are in the attachment. I hope it helps. The thesis was entitled "The ecology and physiology of freshwater molluscs in relation water chemistry" 1973 University of Salford , UK
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