World Congress of Malacology Antwerp ... - Unitas Malacologica

little attention. Molluscs are barely on the radar screen of global conservation funding, and there is
still little conservation-driven prioritizing for exploring the molluscan fauna of the world. The
consequence of the poor image of, and support to, alpha-taxonomy is that the "taxonomic
impediment" is likely with us to last.
Despite that biodiversity informatics and environmental awareness have triggered an explosion of
global assessments of all sorts; we still lack a reliable measure of the magnitude of molluscan
diversity. Molluscan taxonomy is hampered by the burden of vast numbers of poorly described
nominal species that have not been revised for decades. Recent published estimates of described valid
species range from 45,000 to 130,000; my own figure is 55,000 marine, 6,000 freshwater, and 20,000
land species. With tropical faunas grossly undersampled and micromolluscs vastly undescribed, it is
reasonable to speculate that the actual number of recent molluscs is 150-200,000 species. Molecular
approaches, until recently limited to a few model organisms, are starting to disclose additional
biodiversity that could significantly alter the magnitude of the final count.
Atlas and red list of the terrestrial and freshwater molluscs of Castilla La Mancha (Spain):
Distribution and conservation
Bragado, M. Dolores; Aparicio, M. Teresa; Araujo, Rafael
Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales (CSIC), José Gutiérrez Abascal 2, 28006, Madrid, Spain,
Email: lolab@mncn.csic.es; rafael@mncn.csic.es, teresa@mncn.csic.es
The Autonomous Community of Castilla La Mancha, located in the southern half of the Iberian
Peninsula, has a surface area of 79.463 km2. Its climate is characterized by cold winters with hot
summers and irregular rainfall with significant thermal oscillations and notable aridity.
The whole territory was divided into10x10 km UTM squares covering all possible habitats within
each square. Sample points were georeferenced using GPS. Field work was carried out from
September 2003 to May 2007. At the moment, 2465 localities have been surveyed.
A guide has been compiled to provide a detailed account of slugs, snails and mussels species found in
Castilla La Mancha. Samples from mollusc collections (Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales of
Madrid), previously collected for other studies and cited in the literature have been also included in
the study.
Each species has been registered in a reference card including its photograph, taxonomy, habitat,
conservation status and a map with its distribution area.
A total of 182 species (55 freshwater and 126 terrestrial) has been determined. Unio tumidiformis
Castro, 1899 is recorded for the first time in Spain. Twenty-nine species (13 terrestrial and 16
freshwater) were found for the first time in Castilla La Mancha, i. e. Acroloxus lacustris (Linnaeus,
1758), Arion (Mesarion) hispanicus Simroth, 1886, Vallonia excentrica (O.F. Müller, 1774) and the
freshwater invasive species Corbicula fluminea (O.F. Müller, 1774).
Threatened species and environmentally interesting locations are specially studied to specify
protection areas and conservation actions to reduce possible species extinction risk. Of the 182
species studied, 28 are included in the “Libro Rojo de los Invertebrados de España” (18 freshwater i.
e. Sphaerium corneum (Linnaeus, 1758) and 10 terrestrial i. e. Iberus marmoratus guiraoanus
(Rossmässler, 1854)) and 9 (5 freshwater and 4 terrestrial) are included in the “Catálogo Regional de
Especies Amenazadas de Castilla-La Mancha”).
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