Mytilopsis leucophaeata

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 : 59-60

Mytilopsis leucophaeata (Conrad, 1831)

*1831 Mytilus leucophaeatus Conrad: 263-264, pl. 11, fig. 13.

2013 Mytilopsis leucophaeata (Conrad, 1831). - Kijashko in Bogutskaya et al.: 320, fig. 107.

Status. Invasive Pontocaspian species.

Type locality. Southern coast of eastern United States.

Distribution. Black Sea Basin, Caspian Sea, coasts of western Europe, Caribbean, and northern South America.

Remarks. The species, native to the southern coast of North America, was first introduced in Europe in 1835 ( Heiler et al. 2010). In the Pontocaspian region, it first appeared in the northern Black Sea Basin in 2002 and was first collected in the Caspian Sea in 2009 ( Heiler et al. 2010). It is easily distinguished from Pontocaspian dreissenids by the presence of an aphophysis near the hinge.

Conservation status. Least Concern ( Cummings 2011).