Ondřej Korábek

Charles University in Prague | CUNI · Department of Zoology (PF)

Interbreeding and introgression between recently diverged species is common. However, the processes that prevent these species from merging where they co-occur are not well understood. We studied the mechanisms that allowed an isolated group of populations of the snail Helix thessalica to persist within the range of the related Helix pomatia despit...

This paper presents important faunistic records conducted in the Czech and Slovak Republics during 2023. We also include records generated before 2023, which have yet to be published, mainly because their correct identification was unavailable earlier. In a separate section we present records of unintentionally introduced species, reported for the...

Monachoides is a genus of medium-sized European land snails in the family Hygromiidae. Systematics of this family was until recently based on traits of the genital system that were shown to be uninformative, resulting in revisions of classifications at the genus and family levels. Up to six species were recognized in Monachoides lately, but the inc...

Helix escherichi O. Boettger, 1898 from western Anatolia is a poorly known species that was placed in the Anatolian Helix (Helix) clade in previous phylogenetic analyses. We sequenced additional individuals, but these were found to belong to Maltzanella P. Hesse, 1917, the sister genus of Helix. Examination of the type materials and the largest set...

The Caucasus and the adjacent Pontic Mountains in northeastern Anatolia are home to numerous endemic land snail genera and species. The diversity of the region is the result of both intra-regional speciation and the persistence of relict lineages. The same seemed to be true for the genus Helix, which has been present in the Greater Caucasus since t...

Aim Were postglacial recolonizations facilitated by persistence close to the colonized areas rather than by dispersal ability allowing for colonization from distant sources? This question is particularly relevant for organisms with low active dispersal abilities and lacking specialized propagules. Here we identified glacial refugia of four Central...

This paper presents important faunistic records conducted in the Czech and Slovak Republics during 2021. In the Šumava Mts, South Bohemia, a hydrobiid snail of the genus Alzoniella was found. Monacha cantiana s. lato was genetically confirmed for the first time in the city of Bratislava, Slovakia. New sites of Cornu aspersum (Prague) and Tandonia k...

Populations of rock-dwelling snails are often isolated from each other due to outcrops of suitable rock forming islands separated by uninhabitable habitats. By chance, some snail taxa were able to rapidly extend their distribution ranges or colonise distant areas. The helicid Levantina from the Middle East has a very large range compared with relat...

Sequences of mitochondrial genes revolutionized the understanding of animal diversity and continue to be an important tool in biodiversity research. In the tribe Helicini, a prominent group of the western Palaearctic land snail fauna, mitochondrial data accumulating since the 2000s helped to newly delimit genera, inform species-level taxonomy and r...

The North African helicid Gyrostomella has been considered closely related to Levantina, suggesting a disjunct distribution with a distribution gap of almost 2000 km in North Africa. We studied this disjunction and the systematics of Helicinae using molecular markers. Our analyses indicate an affiliation of Gyrostomella with the radiation of Helici...

The Mediterranean basin is a major centre for land-snail diversity, with many localized endemics, but there are also species widely spread by humans. Both endemics and introductions can be found in the snail genus Helix, which comprises many large-bodied species used for human consumption in the past and present. The Mediterranean clade of Helix is...

Since the last comprehensive overview of the Czech and Slovak mollusc fauna, released in 2013, several records of species new for the countries or particular regions have appeared. In this paper, we summarize all such records and news collected in 2015-2019, including those affecting nomenclature and the national Check-lists made in 2013 and 2014....

Exact locations of glacial refugia are relevant for the study of contemporary biodiversity, not only as places less disturbed during the climatic changes but also as sources of rapid expansion of the biota after the Last Glacial cycle. If continuously inhabited over several of the Quaternary glacial cycles, the refugia are readily identifiable by t...

Helix grisea was described by Linnaeus in 1758, and its identity has been doubtful ever since. The name features in the early taxonomic history of some other species of Helix sensu lato. Here I provide a summary of the history of its use. Mostly, the name was applied for the widespread species now accepted as Cornu aspersum (O. F. Müller, 1774), wh...

A complete mitochondrial genome of the Roman snail Helixpomatia Linnaeus, 1758 has been sequenced. The length and gene order correspond to that of other available helicid mitogenomes. We used the mitogenome sequence to reappraise the relationships among the four presumed principal groups of the helicid subfamily Helicinae. The results support the i...

Helix lucorum is a large synanthropic land snail of substantial economic importance, which has been recently reported from a number of new sites in Western, Central, and Eastern Europe. It is an originally Anatolian and Caucasian species, but its presumed natural distribution also covers the south and east of the Balkans. Populations of unclear ori...

Helix lucorum is a large synanthropic land snail of substantial economic importance, which has been recently reported from a number of new sites in Western, Central, and Eastern Europe. It is an originally Anatolian and Caucasian species, but its presumed natural distribution also covers the south and east of the Balkans. Populations of unclear ori...

The Holocene postglacial expansions offer a possibility to assess how quickly snails, with proverbially slow active dispersal and unclear passive dispersal capabilities, can naturally spread. We explore the possibilities and limitations of such an approach on an iconic European snail. We locate probable sources of postglacial expansion of Helix pom...

Tandonia kusceri (Wagner, 1931) is reported from Slovakia for the first time. The slug was found in the Ružinov and Petržalka housing estates, Bratislava, in 2014 and 2015, respectively. Our observations suggest that the species is well established in the Slovak capital. This finding calls for verification of some of the older reports of a similar...

The Roman snail Helix pomatia Linnaeus, 1758 is a large terrestrial gastropod very common in central and southeastern Europe, and is the type species of the genus. A recent molecular phylogenetic study has uncovered two divergent lineages within the species as currently conceived. One represents the true H. pomatia, the second corresponds to a prev...

Oním nově nalezeným je hlemýžď pruhovaný (H. thessalica), kterého byste ale v soupisech evropské fauny do r. 2015 hledali marně. Jeho latinské jméno sice pochází už z r. 1886, kdy byl popsán z pohoří Pelion v řecké Thesálii, ale s vývojem systematiky bylo záhy opět zapomenuto. Horečná katalogizace diverzity tehdy ved-la ke třídění plžů podle drobný...

The composition of the land snail fauna of central Europe is responsive to environmental conditions and undergoes changes throughout the Holocene. That holds also for the fauna of central-European Helicellinae, a group of dry-adapted western Palearctic snails with five species living in the Czech Republic. While one of them is currently spreading i...

The vast diversity of land snail forms is insufficiently understood even in seemingly familiar taxa. This holds for Helix Linnaeus, 1758, a genus with several common edible species which comprises the largest Western Palearctic snails. The taxonomy of this genus, which has a centre of diversity in the eastern Mediterranean, has recently undergone s...

In the autumn of 2014, we conducted a malacological survey at 23 freshwater bodies in the Danubian lowland, SW Slovakia. We aimed to conduct a malacological inventory of semi-natural sites of a high conservation value. During the fieldwork, we used conventional methods of sampling; mostly sweeping by a hemispherical metal kitchen strainer from both...

A recently published paper on some Helix species from the East Mediterranean basin is briefly reviewed. Parts of the results of the authors of that study are erroneous because they are based on a misinterpretation of some of the taxa involved. An analysis of the actually studied taxa is presented, and the essential consequences for nomenclature and...

Helix is a genus of large Western Palaearctic land snails, particularly diverse in the Mediterranean region. Despite size and attractiveness of its members, it has an unsettled taxonomy, and no data are available on its intrageneric phylogenetic relationships. One of the problematic Helix taxa is the widely distributed, economically important, and...