Maxim Vinarski

Saint Petersburg State University | SPBU · Laboratory of Macroecology and Biogeography of Invertebrates

This article aims to reconstruct the invasion of the ear-shaped pond snail, Radix auricularia (Linnaeus, 1758), to Lake Baikal, East Siberia. This species is widely distributed in the Palaearctic and Northern America, and since the early 20th century has formed abundant and sustained populations in Lake Baikal. The data provided on the morphologica...

In August–October 2021, specimens of one of the most effective and widespread alien mollusk species on a global scale, Dreissena polymorpha (Pallas, 1771), were found for the first time in the Pyshma River on the territory of the West Siberian Plain. The first finding in Siberia was made in a watercourse with a natural thermal regime; the found mol...

А.Л. Рижинашвили. История науки как основа для современных достижений фундаментальной биологии. С. 211-212. М.В. Винарский. СИСТЕМАТИКА НАШИХ ДНЕЙ: ПУТЬ К НОВОМУ СИНТЕЗУ ИЛИ БЕСКОНЕЧНЫЙ ТУПИК? С. 213-222. И.А. Гаврилов-Зимин. РАЗВИТИЕ ТЕОРЕТИЧЕСКИХ ПРЕДСТАВЛЕНИЙ О ЖИВОРОЖДЕНИИ. С. 223-252. А.Л. Рижинашвили. КОНТУРЫ ТЕОРИИ ФУНКЦИОНИРОВАНИЯ ВОДНЫХ...

The term “Modern Synthesis” has long been used by researchers writing about the history of evolutionary biology in the 20th century. However, the development of biological systematics over the past 100 years is usually depicted as a kind of “Darwinian” struggle for existence between three ideologically and methodologically different philosophies –...

The species of the Ponto-Caspian gastropod genus Clathrocaspia Lindholm, 1930 have been recorded so far from the Caspian Sea Basin only from marine waters, whereas they inhabit the estuarine areas as well as the purely freshwater environments in the Azov–Black Sea Basin. This genus has recently been assessed as putatively extinct in the Caspian Sea...

We applied the concept of dark diversity (species that may potentially inhabit a locality but are absent) to the host spectrum of a parasite and defined it as dark host specificity (DHS). We studied the trait-associated and geographic patterns of dark host specificity in fleas and gamasid mites parasitic on small mammals, asking the following quest...

Here, we investigate the shell shape variation of some closely related freshwater species of the bivalve genus Corbicula using descriptive (qualitative), geometric morphometric and traditional conchometric approaches. The combination of these different approaches allows for an effective discrimination between the species C. fluminalis, C. fluminea...

In August - October 2021, mollusks of one of the most active and widely spread alien species on a global scale, (Pallas, 1771), were found for the first time in the Pyshma River on the territory of the West Siberian Plain. The first find in Siberia was made in a watercourse with a natural thermal regime and contained individuals of different size a...

A survey of the exchange of freshwater gastropods mollusks between Europe and North America is provided. Several dozen species of snails migrated, during the last two centuries, in either direction across North Atlantic and this process is ongoing. The intensity of the faunal exchange is unequal since much more snail species have dispersed from Nor...

We applied the elements of metacommunity structure (EMS) approach and studied the temporal dynamics of metacommunity structure in arthropod ectoparasites (fleas, gamasid mites and ixodid ticks) harboured by six small mammalian hosts sampled for three decades in the same locality in Western Siberia at three hierarchical scales (inframetacommunities,...

Dark diversity (DD) is represented by species that may potentially inhabit a locality but are absent. We applied this approach to identify missing species and links in the interaction networks of fleas and gamasid mites with small mammals and asked (a) which factors affect host, parasite or interaction (= link) DD and (b) whether the probability of...

The concentration of the major and trace elements in the riverine waters of the Upper Amur basin (Transbaikalia, southeast Siberia) in the Late Holocene (5.5-1.2 kya) was determined by their accumulation in the archaeological shells of the Pearlmussel Margaritifera dahurica (Margaritiferidae, Bivalvia). A positive relationship between the accumulat...

Grigory Efimovich Grumm-Grzhimailo, a renowned explorer of Pamir and Central Asia, began his long (over 50 years) and diverse scientific career as a lepidopterist. His first publications were devoted to the taxonomy and zoogeography of Lepidoptera. Grumm-Grzhimailo’s deep interest in this insect group provoked him to set out on his expeditions to C...

The high-elevation Tibetan Plateau (western China) is inhabited by a unique though not particularly species-rich community of organisms. We explored the species content and evolutionary history of the Tibetan Plateau endemic freshwater snail genus Tibetoradix. Phylogenetic relationships within the genus were reconstructed based on available sequenc...

1. We applied a Markov random fields/conditional random fields (MRF/CRF) modelling to understand whether and how species associations in ectoparasite infracommunities of small mammals vary along environmental gradients across space and time. 2. We analysed the variation in species associations in flea and mite infracommunities of seven host species...

The faunal, molecular, and palaeogeographic data that make it possible to discuss where and when aquatic animals could have crossed the watershed divide between the basins of the Caspian Sea and the Arctic Ocean are discussed. The freshwater fauna of Europe and northern Asia were largely similar in the Pliocene, while Pliocene fauna in Siberia went...

The contribution to malacology made by the eminent Russian scientist and traveler, Alexander Theodor von Middendorff (1815–1894) is reviewed. Middendorff’s research is rightly considered the highest achievement of Russian malacology in the 19th century. It is shown, despite the relatively short timespan of his malacological activity, Middendorff co...

Biodiversity and conservation assessments rise and fall with taxonomic accuracy. An example of a still largely unresolved taxonomy is found in the Gastropoda of the Caspian Sea. The present paper clarifies the taxonomy of the genus Abeskunus and its three species of anomalohaline gastropods endemic to the Caspian Sea. Based on material from Pleisto...

The unique aquatic Pontocaspian (PC) biota of the Black Sea Basin (BSB) is in decline. The lack of detailed knowledge on the status and trends of species, populations, and communities hampers a thorough risk assessment and precludes effective conservation. This paper reviews PC biodiversity trends in the BSB (Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova, Ukraine, an...

A taxonomic revision of the stygobiont microsnails from northwestern Transcaucasia (Krasnodar Krai, Russia) is presented. Two new genera-Schapsugia gen. n. and Tachira gen. n. are established. It is shown that the genus Paladilhiopsis does not occur in this area, and the snails previously assigned to this genus belong to Schapsugia gen. n. Two nomi...

Unionidae is a species-rich family of large freshwater mussels with an almost worldwide distribution. In many regions of the world, these mussels are imperiled. Northern Asia, excluding the Far East, is an excellent example of a region with a sharply impoverished fauna of the Unionidae as recently thought with one native species. Since the end of t...

Since the end of the 19th century, the circumpolar fauna of freshwater Mollusca has not been reviewed despite the substantial increase of knowledge on this subject. A review of the freshwater mollusks of the Arctic based on an analysis of published data, own results and examination of museum collections is presented. 104 species of Mollusca have be...

With the biodiversity crisis continuing unchecked, we need to establish levels and drivers of extinction risk, and reassessments over time, to effectively allocate conservation resources and track progress towards global conservation targets. Given that threat appears particularly high in freshwaters, we assessed the extinction risk of 1428 randoml...

Molluscs are among the most diverse and widespread animal groups in freshwater habitats. Unfortunately, like most freshwater taxa, they are decreasing dramatically and are now among the most threatened animals on Earth, with many species already extinct or on the brink of extinction. Here, we review our current knowledge on the biodiversity and con...

Analysis of zoogeographic, paleogeographic, and molecular data has shown that the ancestors of many fresh-and brackish-water cold-tolerant hydrobionts of the Mediterranean region and the Danube River basin likely originated in East Asia or Central Asia. The fish genera Gasterosteus, Hucho, Oxynoemacheilus, Salmo, and Schizothorax are examples of th...

We studied patterns of compositional, functional, and phylogenetic α- and β-diversity in flea and gamasid mite infracommunities of small Siberian mammals, taking into account host-associated (species) and environmental (biome or sampling period) factors. We asked: (a) How do these factors and their interactions affect infracommunity diversity? (b)...

This work publishes several letters from the Grand Duke Nikolai Mikhailovich Romanov, known as an amateur entomologist and organizer of lepidopterological research in Russia, to his colleague and collaborator, outstanding Russian traveler Grigory Efimovich Grumm-Grzhimailo. Letters written in the period from 1884 to 1899 are kept in the archive of...

Aim The unique aquatic Pontocaspian (PC) biota of the Black Sea Basin (BSB) is in decline. Lack of detailed knowledge on the status and trends of species, populations and communities hampers a thorough risk assessment and precludes effective conservation. This paper aims to review PC biodiversity trends using endemic molluscs as a model group. We a...

The taxonomic position of three nominal species of lymnaeid snails placed by Kruglov & Starobogatov (1993) into the subgenus Lymnaea ( Pacifimyxas) Kruglov & Starobogatov, 1985, has been re-assessed based on a molecular genetic study of topotypic specimens and an examination of the type series and other materials a vailable. It has been shown that...

The history of malacological exploration of Siberia, made in 1932 and 1933 by the malacologist Alan Mozley, then affiliated with the Smithsonian Institution, USA, is given, with a discussion of his contribution to the knowledge of taxonomy, biogeography and ecology of freshwater and terrestrial molluscs of Northern Asia. The type specimens of the S...

A finding of the lymnaeid species Ladislavella occulta (Jackiewicz, 1959) [Mollusca: Gas-tropoda: Lymnaeidae] in Hungary is reported, which is the first record of this aquatic snail in the country. The shells of L. occulta were found in 1989 in the marsh area of the Bátorliget Nature Reserve. The current distribution of this species in Eastern and...

A new genus of stygobiont hydrobiid snails, endemic to Georgia, is described. Sitnikovia gen. nov. includes two species: S. megruli sp. nov. and S. ratschuli sp. nov., known only from their type local- ities (Garakha and Sakishore caves). The data of shell characters, penial morphology, and radula of the new genus are provided.

The Caspian Sea is renowned for its endemic mollusk biodiversity. However, over the past decades, increasing anthropogenic pressures have caused decreases in abundances and even extinction of species. Both key pressures and endemic taxa are distributed spatially unevenly across the Caspian Sea, suggesting that ecologically different taxa such as ga...

The review summarizes the faunal, molecular, and palaeogeographic data that make it possible to discuss on where and when the aquatic animals could have crossed the drainage divide between the Caspian Sea and Arctic Ocean basins. The freshwater faunas of Europe and northern Asia were largely similar in the Pliocene, while the Pliocene Siberian faun...

Data on the historical change of the Transbaikalian malacofauna in the Neopleistocene and Holocene is presented. Aquatic mollusc shells from archaeological excavations of the ancient settlements dating from the Neolithic period to Medieval and also from a drill hole of the Neopleistocene alluvial deposits were collected. In total eight species of b...

Aim We studied compositional turnover in two ectoparasite taxa asking whether (a) the main driver of turnover (environmental factors, host composition, or distance) is the same in both taxa; (b) the turnover of rare and widespread fleas and mites is driven by different factors; and (c) the turnover of either fleas or mites or both respond to the sa...

The article represents an overview of 29 biological species of the radicine snails (recovered during our previous molecular taxonomic study (Aksenova et al. 2018a; Scientific Reports, 8: 11199). For each species, the following information is provided: scientific name, a (non-exhaustive) list of synonyms, type locality, type materials, shell and cop...

This article represents the third (and last) part of the catalogue of ectoparasitic gamasid mites associated with small mammals in Asiatic Russia (Siberia and the Russian Far East). A total of 19 species of the genus Hirstionyssus Fonseca, 1948 are indexed, with data on their taxonomic position, nomenclature, host range, and distribution within the...

We studied patterns of ectoparasite species turnover and pairwise ectoparasite-host interactions across space and time in fleas and mites harboured by small mammals using a novel metric, zeta diversity (similarity between multiple communities). We asked whether the zeta diversity of parasites and their interactions with hosts follow a similar spati...

Data on historical change of the Transbaikalian malacofauna in the Neopleistocene and Holocene is presented. Fossil shells from archeological excavations of the ancient settlements dating from the Neolithic period to Medieval and also from a drill hole of the Neopleistocene alluvial deposits were collected. In total nine species of bivalve molluscs...

The Asian pond mussels (Sinanodonta spp.) are invasive species rapidly spreading throughout the world. In Russia, non-native populations of Sinanodonta woodiana and S. lauta were firstly discovered in an artificially heated section of the Yenisei River, Eastern Siberia. Here, we report that these mussels successfully colonized the downstream of the...

An illustrated overview of the type series of nominal taxa of the gastropod genus Theodoxus (Neritidae) inhabiting the Ponto-Caspian region is presented. It is based on a revision of large European malacological collections and includes descriptions of the type specimens of 16 taxa of different rank (species, variety, morph). Apart of these, the “t...

We studied compositional turnover in communities of fleas and mites harboured by small mammals using zeta diversity metric (similarity between multiple communities) and asked whether the patterns of zeta diversity decline with an increase in the number of communities differ between taxa and hierarchical scales [infracommunities (parasite assemblage...

Freshwater mussels (Bivalvia: Unionoida) play an important role in freshwater habitats as ecosystem engineers of the water environment. Duck mussel Anodonta anatina is widely distributed throughout Europe, Siberia, and Western and Central Asia, which makes it a convenient object for biogeographic studies. In this study, we analyzed the divergence o...

1. This study tested the relationships between the probability of pairwise species co‐occurrence and pairwise dissimilarity in their traits in infracommunities (across assemblages harboured by conspecific individual hosts within a locality), component communities (across assemblages harboured by host species within a locality), and compound communi...

Supplementary Figure 1. Habitats of freshwater mussels (Unionidae) in European Russia and Siberia • Supplementary Figure 2. Habitats of freshwater mussels (Unionidae) in the Russian Far East and Pacific Ocean islands • Supplementary Figure 3. Scatter plot of principal component analysis (PCA) based on the presence-absence dataset on freshwater mu...

Freshwater mussels are ecosystem engineers and keystone species in aquatic environments. Unfortunately, due to dramatic declines this fauna is among the most threatened globally. Here, we clarify the taxonomy and biogeography of Russian Unionidae species based on the most comprehensive multi-locus dataset sampled to date. We revise the distribution...

An overview on the type series of freshwater mollusk species and varieties described by Jacques Philippe Raymond Draparnaud (1772-1804) in 1801 and 1805 was published by Vinarski & Eschner (2016). In total, 22 out of 23 gastropod and bivalve taxa were presented with relevant information on species identity, synonymy and taxonomic position. This add...

The use of the ‘integrative approach’ to classification of organisms since its formal establishing in 2005 has became a recurrent theme of zoosystematics. A bibliometric survey of the publications on integrative taxonomy of animals, which is aimed at exploring the most popular areas of research and characterizing the practical systematists’ attitud...

Here, we present an integrative review of the non-native Sinanodonta spp. from Kazakhstan based on molecular and morphological data. Sinanodonta woodiana (Lea, 1834) inhabits the Syr Darya River, while two species, S. woodiana and S. lauta (Martens, 1877), have established viable populations in the Ili River basin, a tributary of the Balkhash Lake....

A new representative of the genus Radix has been recorded from eastern China, Radix dgebuadzei sp. nov. This peculiar species was recorded from the Qinling Mountains, a remote highland region sharing the high levels of faunal and floral endemism. The phylogeny indicate that the new species belongs to the Radix alticola species group, being sister t...