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Aquatic Invasions (2008) Volume 3, Issue 3: 345-347
doi: 10.3391/ai.2008.3.3.11
© 2008 by the author(s); licensee REABIC.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any
medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Special issue “Invasive Aquatic Molluscs – ICAIS 2007 Conference Papers and Additional Records”
Frances E. Lucy and Thaddeus K. Graczyk (Guest Editors)
345
Short communication
The New Zealand mud snail Potamopyrgus antipodarum (Gray, 1843) is colonising
the artificial lakes of Kaliningrad City, Russia (Baltic Sea Coast)
Dmitry P. Filippenko1 and Mikhail O. Son2*
1Immanuel Kant State University of Russia, Kaliningrad, Russia
2Odessa Branch Institute of Biology of the Southern Seas, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Odessa, Ukraine
*Corresponding author
E-mail: michail.son@gmail.com
Received 18 July 2008; accepted in revised form 12 August 2008; published online 5 October 2008
Abstract
In 2008, the New Zealand mud snail Potamopyrgus antipodarum was detected in artificial freshwater lakes of Kalinigrad City
(Russia), developed in sand and gravel extraction sites. P. antipodarum records along the Baltic coast were previously located in
open sea and estuary sites and this is first species’ record, in this type of man-made freshwater habitat, for the Baltic Region.
Key words: alien species, Potamopyrgus antipodarum, molluscs, Baltic Sea Region
The New Zealand mud snail, Potamopyrgus
antipodarum (Gray, 1843), was first observed in
the western Baltic Sea in 1887 (Lassen 1978).
Later it was also reported in the North Baltic
archipelago (Aland Islands), Wismar Bight
(Germany), the Swedish island Gotland, Both-
nian Bay, Gulf of Finland, Odra Estuary, Vistula
Lagoon, and Curonian Lagoon (Hubendick 1950;
Gruszka 1999; Orlova et al. 1999; Leppakoski
and Olenin 2000; Ezhova et al. 2005; Gasiunaite
et al. 2008).
In Russia, P. antipodarum was known in the
eastern Gulf of Finland and the Lower Don Basin
(Orlova et al. 1999; Son et al. 2008).
In 2008, this species was found in the littoral
zone of artificial freshwater reservoirs of
Kalinigrad City. They represent a group of arti-
ficial lakes situated along the SW Kaliningrad
Gulf (Lake Forelevoje and Golubyje Lakes) that
have recently arisen due to the extraction of sand
and gravel in places which are now used for
recreational purposes (see Figure 1).
The snails were found in some localities in
various littoral habitats (see Annex 1). In some
sampling points, they were found in high
abundance (up to 1884 ind. /m2).
Until this study, this species was found mostly
in the open sea or estuaries along the Baltic
сoast, with the exception of isolated freshwater
coastal lakes in Finland (Carlsson 2000). The
snail can be transported along Baltic coast
mostly by birds (Lassen 1978), but to these
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M. O. Son, Potamopyrgus an t ipodarum in the Azov-Black Sea Region
346
coastal reservoirs snails can penetrate from the
Kaliningrad Gulf by natural spread. This species
was not previously reported on the Kaliningrad
coast of the Baltic Sea coast, probably due to its
similarity to local species of Hydrobiidae.
It is interesting, that even though in the
natural habitats in the Baltic Sea two morpho-
logically differing lines of P. antipodarum are
known to occur (Son 2007), only one of them has
been found in these artificial lakes (compare
Figures 2 and 3).
Figure 1. New records of Potamopyrgus antipodarum in
Russia
Figure 2. Potamopyrgus antipodarum from the artificial
lakes situated along SW Kaliningrad Gulf (Russia) (Photo:
D.P. Filippenko)
Figure 3. Two distinct lines of Potamopyrgus from Baltic
Sea (Hanko Penninsula coast, area of Tvarminne Zoological
Station, Finland), scale bar = 0.5 cm (Photo: M.O. Son)
Acknowledgements
We are grateful to Frances Lucy (Institute of
Technology Sligo, Ireland) for English editing
and valuable comments that improved the
manuscript. This work was partly supported by
the European Commission 6th Framework
Program Integrated Project ALARM (contract
GOCE-CT-2003-506675). Field research on the
Tvarminne Zoological Station (Finland) was
supported by of MARS Trawel Award for Young
Scientists (Corridor of molluscs’ invasion “Black
Sea – Baltic Sea”).
References
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Annex 1
Records of Potamopyrgus antipodarum (Gray, 1843) in the artificial lakes situated along SW Kaliningrad Gulf
Record coordinates
Location
Latitude,°N Longitude,°E
Date of
record
Substrate Collector
Lake Forelevoje. Site 1 54°39'06'' 20°22'20'' 07.06.2008 sand, gravel D.P. Filippenko
Lake Forelevoje. Site 2 54°39'24'' 20°22'20'' 07.06.2008 sand, gravel D.P. Filippenko
Lake Forelevoje. Site 3 54°39'52'' 20°23'45'' 07.06.2008
sand with an impurity of
softened plant fragments
D.P. Filippenko
Golubyje Lakes. Site 1 54°39'12'' 20°22'07'' 16.06.2008 sand, gravel D.P. Filippenko
Golubyje Lakes. Site 2 54°39'13'' 20°22'01'' 16.06.2008 filamentous algae D.P. Filippenko
Golubyje Lakes. Site 3 54°39'02'' 20°21'25''
18.06.2008,
08.07.2008
sand, filamentous algae D.P. Filippenko
Golubyje Lakes. Site 4 54°39'01'' 20°21'28''
18.06.2008,
08.07.2008
sand with an impurity of
softened plant fragments
D.P. Filippenko
Golubyje Lakes. Site 5 54°38'56'' 20°21'23''
18.06.2008,
08.07.2008
filamentous algae, wood D.P. Filippenko
