Mytilaster minimus

Wesselingh, Frank, Poorten, Jan Johan ter, Kijashko, Pavel, Albrecht, Christian, Anistratenko, Olga Yu, Frolov, Pavel, Gándara, Alberto Martinez, Gittenberger, Arjan, Gogaladze, Aleksandre, Mikhail Karpinsky, Popa, Luis, Sands, Arthur F, Vandendorpe, Justine & Wilke, Thomas, 2019, Mollusc species from the Pontocaspian region - an expert opinion list, ZooKeys 827, pp. 31-124 : 34

Mytilaster minimus (Poli, 1795)

*1795 Mytilus minimus Poli: 209-210, pl. 32, fig. 1.

1932 Mytilaster lineatus (Gmelin, 1790). - Bogachev: 38, pl. 1, figs 5-11 [non Mytilus lineatus Gmelin, 1791].

1952 Mytilaster lineatus (Gmelin, 1789). - Zhadin: 285, fig. 248 [non Gmelin, 1791].

1969 Mytilaster lineatus (Gmel.). - Logvinenko and Starobogatov: 311-312, figs 339a, b, pl. 5, figs 1, 2 [non Gmelin, 1791].

1969 Mytilaster lineatus (Gmelin, 1790). - Vekilov: 155-157, pl. 35, figs 1-25 [non Gmelin, 1791].

2013 Mytilaster lineatus (Gmelin, 1791). - Kijashko in Bogutskaya et al.: 316, fig. 104 [non Gmelin, 1791].

Status. Native to Black Sea Basin, invasive in Caspian Sea, introduced in Aral Sea but extinct there.

Type locality. Sicily, Italy.

Distribution. Native to the Mediterranean and Black Sea. Introduced in the Caspian Sea between 1917 and 1919 ( Grigorovich et al. 2003).

Taxonomic notes. This species has commonly been mentioned as Mytilaster lineatus (Gmelin, 1791), but the Caspian-Aral species lacks the ribbing typical for that species. The attribution to M. minimus is based on shell morphology but confirmation from molecular analyses is required.

Remarks. Mytilaster minimus has successfully replaced Dreissena caspia and D. elata between 1938 and 1957 ( Kostianoy and Kosarev 2005) in the Caspian Sea. Logvinenko and Starobogatov (1969) reported this species from the southern areas of the northern Caspian Sea, in the middle and the southern Caspian Sea down to 35-50 m water depth. Rarely, small individuals were found at depths down to 100 m. The species does not tolerate salinities below 7-8‰. This species was mentioned from depths between 200 and 600 m in the South Caspian Basin of Azerbaijan ( Mirzoev and Alekperov 2017, who reported the species as M. lineatus ). These deep records are unusual given other records and will require confirmation.

Conservation status. Not assessed.