First record of the acute bladder snail Physella acuta (Draparnaud, 1805) in the wild waters of Lithuania

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BioInvasions Records (2019) Volume 8, Issue 2: 281–286
Butkus et al. (2019), BioInvasions Records 8(2): 281–286, https://doi.org/10.3391/bir.2019.8.2.10 281
CORRECTED PROOF
Rapid Communication
First record of the acute bladder snail Physella acuta (Draparnaud, 1805)
in the wild waters of Lithuania
Rokas Butkus1,*, Giedrė Višinskienė2 and Kęstutis Arbačiauskas2,3
1Marine Research Institute, Klaipėda University, Herkaus Manto Str. 84, LT-92294 Klaipėda, Lithuania
2Nature Research Centre, Akademijos str. 2, LT-08412 Vilnius, Lithuania
3Department of Zoology, Institute of Biosciences, Vilnius University, Saulėtekio al. 7, LT-10257 Vilnius, Lithuania
*Corresponding author
E-mail: butkus.rokas@gmail.com
Abstract
The acute bladder snail Physella acuta (Draparnaud, 1805) was observed for the
first time in the wild waters of Lithuania at one site in the lower reaches of the
Nevėžis River in 2015. The restricted distribution and low density suggest recent
introduction. Although P. acuta in the first half of the 20th century was reported in
ponds of the Kaunas Botanical Garden, they appear to have vanished as of 2012.
Thus we conclude that recent invasion into the wild most probably has resulted
from disposal of aquarium organisms.
Key words: aquarium trade, local distribution, recent introduction, river
Introduction
The acute bladder snail Physella acuta (Draparnaud, 1805) (in synonymy
with Physa acuta Draparnaud, 1805) is a small air-breathing snail with a
left-handed (sinistral) light horny yellowish shell and pointed apex. It is
one of the most widespread freshwater snail invaders. The species was first
described from France and this led to early speculation of a European
origin for the species. It is now established that North America is the native
range of the species (Dillon et al. 2002; Anderson 2003; Taylor 2003;
Lydeard et al. 2016). Currently P. acuta is widespread and occurs on all
continents except Antarctica (Bousset et al. 2014; Ng et al. 2015).
In Lithuania, P. acuta was historically reported from artificial ponds of
the Kaunas Botanical Garden (Schlesch 1937; Schlesch and Krausp 1938;
Šivickis 1960); however, the species has never been seen in wild waters. The
snail inhabits natural freshwater bodies in neighbouring countries, in
particular Poland and Belarus (Semenchenko et al. 2008; Lewin et al. 2015),
and invasion of the species into Lithuanian wild waters has been predicted
(Butkus et al. 2014). In this work, we report the first record of P. acuta in
the wild waters of Lithuania and discuss the probable vectors of
introduction.
Citation: Butkus R, Višinskienė G,
Arbačiauskas K (2019) First record of the
acute bladder snail Physella acuta
(Draparnaud, 1805) in the wild waters of
Lithuania. BioInvasions Records 8(2):
281–286, https://doi.org/10.3391/bir.2019.8.2.10
Received: 11 October 2018
Accepted: 25 February 2019
Published: 29 April 2019
Thematic editor: David Wong
Copyright: © Butkus et al.
This is an open access article distributed under terms
of the Creative Commons Attribution License
(Attribution 4.0 International - CC BY 4.0).
OPEN ACCESS.

First record of Physella acuta in the wild waters of Lithuania
Butkus et al. (2019), BioInvasions Records 8(2): 281–286, https://doi.org/10.3391/bir.2019.8.2.10 282
Figure 1. Sampling sites (closed circles, n = 61) in the 13 Lithuanian rivers surveyed for
nonindigenous macroinvertebrates (A) and the locality of the record of Physella acuta (B). The
red circle and the star indicate the sampling site at which the species was recorded; ‘X’ shows
the location of the Kaunas Botanical Garden.
Materials and methods
A survey of macroinvertebrates was conducted at 61 sites in the 13 largest
rivers of Lithuania in 2015 (Figure 1). All samples were collected using a
standard dip net. For each study site, semi-quantitative samples—one kick
sample and one sweep sample per site—were collected in wadeable depths
(up to 150 cm) using a 5-min sampling effort for each sample. In the field,
the whole collected material was fixed in 4% formaldehyde. In the
laboratory, samples were sorted and molluscs were preserved in 70%
ethanol until further investigation. The snail P. acuta was identified based
on its left-handed (sinistral) shell with pointed apex, the well-distinctive
feature of the species (Šivickis 1960).

First record of Physella acuta in the wild waters of Lithuania
Butkus et al. (2019), BioInvasions Records 8(2): 281–286, https://doi.org/10.3391/bir.2019.8.2.10 283
Figure 2. The shell of a Physella acuta found in the Nevėžis River. Photograph by R. Butkus.
Results
Of the 61 sites sampled, P. acuta (Figure 2) was detected at one site in the
lower reaches of the Nevėžis River (lat. 23°47′39.8″; long. 54°55′57.8″;
Figure 1). Although the snail was not present in the kick sample, 24
individuals were found in the sweep sample. The species was absent from
the adjacent upriver site and nearest sampling point in river Nemunas,
which were ~ 2.8 km and ~ 6 km away, respectively.
Physella acuta comprised 2.5% of total mollusc abundance at the
detection site. Two other non-indigenous mollusc species were detected
there—Dreissena polymorpha (Pallas, 1771) and Lithoglyphus naticoides
(Pfeiffer, 1828). The latter snail was the dominant mollusc species by
number. Native molluscs were represented by the bivalves Anodonta anatina
(Linnaeus, 1758), Sphaerium corneum (Linnaeus, 1758), Sphaerium rivicola
(Lamarck, 1818), Pisidium amnicum (O. F. Müller, 1774) and the gastropods
Gyraulus albus (Müller, 1774), Lymnea stagnalis (Linnaeus, 1758), Radix
auricularia (Linnaeus, 1758), Bithynia tentaculata (Linnaeus, 1758) and
Viviparus viviparus (Linnaeus, 1758).
Discussion
Physella acuta was recorded for the first time in a natural habitat, i.e. wild
waters, in Lithuania in the lower reaches of the Nevėžis River. Previously
the species had been reported exclusively from ponds of the Kaunas
Botanical Garden (lat. 23°54′37″; long. 54°52′15″; Figure 1) (Schlesch 1937;
Schlesch and Krausp 1938; Šivickis 1960). However, the most recent survey
performed in 2012 did not detect the species at that site. The long-term
application of herbicides for aquatic weed control may have caused the
local extinction of P. acuta from these ponds (Butkus et al. 2014).

First record of Physella acuta in the wild waters of Lithuania
Butkus et al. (2019), BioInvasions Records 8(2): 281–286, https://doi.org/10.3391/bir.2019.8.2.10 284
The exact time, source and vector of P. acuta’s recent invasion into the
wild in Lithuania remains undetermined, although some assumptions and
conclusions can be drawn. Natural dispersal from neighbouring countries
in which it is present is possible, but unlikely. Physella acuta has been
recorded in the Nemunas River basin in Belarus ~ 30–40 km upstream
from the Lithuanian border (Semenchenko et al. 2008). Thus, downstream
migration may have occurred. However, P. acuta has not been seen in the
main waterway of the Nemunas River, either in the 2008 survey (Butkus et
al. 2014) or the 17 sites surveyed in this 2015 investigation.
The potential for dispersal from ponds in the Kaunas Botanical Garden
when the species existed previously to the Nemunas and further to the
Nevėžis cannot be excluded. There is a small possibility that descendants of
P. acuta snails from the Kaunas Botanical Garden dispersed naturally and
they may be in the lag phase of expansion and still at undetectable density.
However, the species was not recorded in rivers in 2008 (Butkus et al.
2014) and the present study recorded it as absent from the Nemunas.
Our current data coincide with the results of other studies (Yakovleva et
al. 2011; Semenchenko et al. 2008) indicating restricted distribution and
rather low density of P. acuta. This can be interpreted as indicating quite
recent introduction of the snail. The species locality is situated in densely
populated area, the suburb of the Kaunas City, thus, the introduction of the
species through release of aquarium organisms into the Nevėžis River
seems the most probable source of the recent invasion. The primary
introduction of the snail into the ponds of the Kaunas Botanical Garden in
the first half of 20th century may also have resulted from the aquarium
trade, which is assumed to be a primary factor in the wordwide dispersion
of this species (Duggan 2010; Vinarski 2017).
The aquarium trade is considered one of the most important vectors for
the spread of various aquatic organisms, and has been linked to the
introduction of more than 150 animal species to natural ecosystems
around the world (Chang et al. 2009). The increasing popularity of
ornamental organisms in both private and public aquariums has promoted
the human-mediated spread of P. acuta. Around the 1910s, the species
became a common organism in botanical gardens in most countries of
Northern and Central Europe (Vinarski 2017). The release of ornamental
organisms outside their native range is a very common introduction vector
responsible for primary and secondary invasions (Koehn and MacKenzie
2004; Duggan 2010; Fuller 2015).
Currently P. acuta is recorded at only one site in the Nevėžis River.
However, this invasive snail may be more widespread in Lithuanian inland
waters, and evaluation of its exact distribution is warranted. Although
P. accuta is considered to be a warm water species, it’s occurrence in
neighbouring countries suggests the climatic conditions in Lithuania to be
suitable for the long-term survival of the species. Human-mediated

First record of Physella acuta in the wild waters of Lithuania
Butkus et al. (2019), BioInvasions Records 8(2): 281–286, https://doi.org/10.3391/bir.2019.8.2.10 285
introductions via release of aquarium organisms (Duggan 2010),
anthropogenic alteration of natural habitats (Strzelec et al. 2006; Spyra and
Strzelec 2014) and natural species dispersal may allow P. acuta to further
expand its range into Lithuanian waters.
Acknowledgements
We thank anonymous peer referees for valuable comments on an early draft of the article. The
study was supported by the Research Council of Lithuania, Project No. SIT-10/2015 and the
European Social Fund under the No 09.3.3-LMT-K-712 “Development of Competences of
Scientists, other Researchers and Students through Practical Research Activities” measure.
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