Melanoides tuberculata (O.F. Müller, 1774)

Marković, Vanja, Gojšina, Vukašin, Novaković, Boris, Božanić, Milenka, Stojanović, Katarina, Karan-Žnidaršič, Tamara & Živić, Ivana, 2021, The freshwater molluscs of Serbia: Annotated checklist with remarks on distribution and protection status, Zootaxa 5003 (1), pp. 1-64 : 13

10. Melanoides tuberculata (O.F. Müller, 1774)

Findings in Serbia.

Melanoides tuberculata: Milenković & Gligorijević (2012) ; Gojšina (2021 pers. comm.).

Common name. Red-rimmed Melania .

Morphology. Medium-sized snails (shell up to 50 mm). Narrow conical shell is light coloured, with 10–15 regularly increasing whorls. Its surface is coarsely striated with brown stripes or spots. For more details see Glöer (2019: 71, fig. 63) and Welter-Schultes (2012: 34, figure on the top of the page).

Distribution and ecology. Tropical species native to East Africa and Southeast Asia where it is found in a variety of habitats (rivers, streams, ponds, and marshes). As an introduced and/or invasive taxon, it is found in many European countries. In Serbia, it has been recorded in two small thermal streams near the city of Niš. The occurrence could be linked with its common use in aquaristics, so its presence could be classified as an accidental finding. It shall remain to see if it will establish a stable population there, as it is known that the species prefers physicochemical stability of the water throughout the year and homogeneity of the habitat, thus inhabiting mostly larger stable water bodies.

Other remarks. Its populations in the Far East consist almost exclusively of females (few sterile males only), while bisexual populations were recorded in Israel ( Welter-Schultes 2012). On the IUCN Red List it has been assessed as LC ( Albrecht et al. 2018).