Una població supervivent del gènere Anodonta (Bivalvia: Unionoida) a la conca de la Tordera

Abstract

A population of naiads or freshwater mussels belonging to the genus Anodonta has been discovered in a small reservoir at the northern edge of the Tordera drainage in Catalonia. The specimens examined belong to Anodonta anatina (Linnaeus, 1758), understood as a group of taxa, one of which may be endemic to the eastern Pyrenees; the oldest name for this is A. penchinati Bourguignat, 1881. They are also attributable to the nominal taxon A. latirostris Drouet, 1893, originally described from material collected in the same drainage, being an ecophenotypic response to a still-water environment with a dioritic sand bottom covered by silt. The reintroduction of this naiad, which is endangered and protected in Catalonia, into restored environments throughout the drainage would be desirable, for biodiversity and functional reasons, and perhaps as an additional measure for the maintenance of water quality. The reintroduction should be carried out with larvae from this surviving population.