I'm just back from a three day meeting sponsored by The Nature Conservancy on endangered aquatic animals of the piedmont and southeastern coastal plain. The region of interest for this particular meeting was very tightly defined, but a bit weird - Atlantic drainages from the Potomac to the Ocmulgee-Altamaha, plus the upper half of a couple Gulf drainages (Flint, Chattahoochee, Tallapoosa).
TNC had received prior info from the Natural Heritage and nongame offices of the various states, so they started with a pretty good working list. Their list was mostly vertebrates and mussels, as you might expect, with a fair number of crustaceans & insects and a few snails.
Basically, TNC just wants to know where rare and threatened aquatic organisms are currently living. They want the most recent data available on whether these populations are large or small, threatened or safe. They specifically listed two planorbids, two hydrobiids, and a pleurocerid:
- Helisoma eucosmium (eastern NC)
- Helisoma (or Planorbella) magnifica (eastern NC)
- Somatogyrus virginicus (Rapidan R., Virginia)
- S. tenax (north Georgia)
- Goniobasis (or Elimia) catenaria (NC/SC/GA)
- Somatogyrus alcoviensis
- Marstonia (or Pyrgulopsis) agarhecta
- M. (or P.) castor
- M. halcyon
- Notogillia sathon
- Spilochlamys turgida
- Goniobasis (or Elimia) flava (Tallapoosa R.)
I would be curious to know if any of you other members of the FWGNA group might have additional information on the distribution & status of these 13 species. And more broadly, I'd be interested to hear whatever thoughts you all might offer regarding other endangered freshwater gastropods from the southeastern Piedmont & Coastal Plain.
P.S. - Tomorrow is the early registration deadline for the March FMCS meeting in Pittsburgh! Don't forget: http://www.dep.state.pa.us/dep/deputate/fieldops/sw/tom/fmcs.html
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