Valvata (Cincinna) ambigua Westerlund 1873

Anistratenko, V. V., Furyk, Yu. I., Anistratenko, O. Yu. & Degtyarenko, E. V., 2019, A Review Of Species Diversity, Distribution And Ecology Of Freshwater Gastropod Molluscs Inhabiting The Ukrainian Transcarpathian, Vestnik Zoologii 53 (5), pp. 349-374 : 362

Valvata (Cincinna) ambigua Westerlund 1873 ( fig. 3 , 5 )

D i s t r i b u t i o n. The species inhabits rivers of Europe and south of Western Siberia ( Anistratenko, Anistratenko, 2001; Vinarski et al., 2013). In Ukraine V. ambigua inhabits lotic waters in the middle and lower part of Dnipro basin (Anistratenko, Chernogorenko, 1989). A population of this species of low density was recently recorded also in the Latorytsia River basin, Transcarpathia ( Stadnichenko, Gyrin, 2011 b). We found a few individuals of V. ambigua at a single locality (15) together with many others gastropod molluscs ( fig. 1 , table 1 ). Available data and our observations suggest this is apparently a regionally rare species.

Remarks. European authors mostly attribute this taxon to a synonymy of Valvata piscinalis (e. g. Welter-Schultes, 2012). Recently the problem was considered on the basis of studying the type material of Valvata ambigua ( Vinarski et al., 2013) — its specific status is strongly argued because of the lower shell, the wider umbilicus of the type specimens. Shell morphology of snails collected in Transcarpathia ( fig. 3 , 5 ) corresponds well to the syntype of this species illustrated by Vinarski et al. (2013: fig. 1 , A–C).

Figures

Fig. 3. Shells of Transcarpathian gastropod molluscs: 1 — Viviparus viviparus (locality 12); 2 — Contectiana contecta (locality 15); 3 — Viviparus sphaeridius (locality 12); 4 — Bithynia tentaculata (locality 15); 5 — Valvata (Cincinna) ambigua (locality 15); 6 — Bithynia troschelii (locality 13); 7 — Valvata (Cincinna) piscinalis (locality 22); 8 — Lithoglyphus naticoides (locality 9); 9–11 — Planorbis planorbis (locality 15); 12, 13 — Planorbarius corneus (locality 15). Scale bars are given for 1–3, 4–8, and 9–13 correspondingly.

Fig. 5. Altitude distribution of freshwater gastropod species found in the Transcarpathia. Height above the sea level (in m) is shown in vertical line.

Fig. 1. Map showing the localities of samples studied. Details for each sampling point are given in table 1.