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Page last updated
6 May 2021 |
Mussel of the Month
The May 2021 Mussel of the Month is Haasica balzani. Haasica is a monotypic genus endemic to the Rio Paraguay in South America.
SMF 3792. Rio Apá, State of Saõ Paulo, Brazil (type).
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There isn’t much to say about Haasica balzani. The species has been known for more than 100 years from the Paraguay in the Parana-La Plata basin. That it gets its own genus is based entirely on shell characters, and its taxonomic position rests on its overall similarity to Monocondylaea and related genera. |
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Classification:
Phylum Mollusca
Class Bivalvia
Subclass Palaeoheterodonta
Order Unionoida
Superfamily ETHERIOIDEA Deshayes, 1830
Family MYCETOPODIDAE Gray, 1840
Subfamily MONOCONDYLAEINAE Modell, 1942
Genus Haasica Stand, 1932
Species Haasica balzani (Ihering, 1893) |
To find out more about Haasica and the other freshwater mussels of South America, check out:
- Graf, D.L. & K.S. Cummings. 2021. A ‘big data’ approach to global freshwater mussel diversity (Bivalvia: Unionoida), with an updated checklist of genera and species. Journal of Molluscan Studies 87(1): 1-36.
- Pereira, D., M.C.D. Mansur, L.D.S. Duarte, A.S. de Oliveira, D.M. Pimpão et al. 2014. Bivalve distribution in hydrographic regions in South America: historical overview and conservation. Hydrobiologia 735: 15-44.
- Simone, L.R.L. 2006. Land and Freshwater Molluscs of Brazil: An Illustrated Inventory of the Brazilian Malacofauna, Including Neighboring Regions of South America, Respect to the Terrestrial and Freshwater Ecosystems. EGB, Fapesp., Sao Paulo. 390 pp.
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