The freshwater mussels (Bivalvia: Unionoida) of South America and their conservation status
by Kevin S. Cummings & Daniel L. Graf
Presented at the Society for Freshwater Science Annual Meeting, 21-26 May 2016, Sacramento, CA.
Abstract. In this monograph we conducted a systematic re-evaluation of the freshwater mussels (Bivalvia: Unionoida) of South America based on a through a review of the published geographic and taxonomic data from the last 200 plus years and examination of over 8500 specimen lots from 22 museum collections in the United States, Europe, Australia, and South America during the period from December 2002 to November 2015. Three additional collections were queried on-line for holdings from South America. Each museum lot examined was digitally photographed to document shell morphology and original label information. Textual data (catalog number, previous identifications, collection locality, etc.) were captured subsequently from the images. Locality data were geo-referenced (if possible) and images were databased along with taxonomic information. To-date, we have captured data on over 8500 lots from South America. The continent is inhabited by three families of freshwater mussels: Etheriidae, Hyriidae, and Mycetopodidae. We currently recognize 127 species in 20 genera. In the monograph, all species are arranged alphabetically by the currently recognized genus and then species, followed by the author and date. For each species the original description, type locality, type specimens, and remarks about the distribution, status, and/or taxonomic issues are given. A distribution map and photograph of each species is given. For direct comparative purposes with fishes we used the South American natural drainages proposed by Reis et al. (2016:23, fig. 3). The large basins were consolidated as a single basin unit in addition to adjacent coastal drainages historically connected, whereas smaller coastal basins were grouped together based on proximity and geography. These regions approximate those of Graf & Cummings (2007:294) and both were based on Freshwater Ecoregion of the World (FEOW) regions proposed by Abell et al. (2008). |
Bivalvia: Unionoida: Unionidae: Genera
