We are pleased to announce that a new web-based resource, the Freshwater Gastropods of Mid-Atlantic States by R. T. Dillon, M. A. Ashton, and T. P. Smith, is now available from the FWGNAwebsite. Hit the big FWGNA logo at right, and click the Mid-Atlantic region for a tour!
This is the sixth region to be added to the FWGNA site since
its debut in 2003, extending our coverage from Georgia to the New York line, raising
the total species reviewed from 79 to 87.
The new Mid-Atlantic site covers Delaware, Maryland, New
Jersey, eastern Pennsylvania and the West Virginia panhandle. Our database of 2,893 freshwater gastropod records
was developed from the collections of the US National Museum, the Academy of
Natural Sciences of Drexel University, the Carnegie Museum of Natural History,
and the Delaware Museum of Natural History, the macrobenthic surveys of the
Maryland DNR (Annapolis), the Pennsylvania DEP (Harrisburg), and the Delaware
DNREC (Dover), and our own original fieldwork.
The new website features a dichotomous key and a photo gallery for all
41 species recovered from the five-state area, as well as range maps and notes
regarding their ecology, life history, taxonomy and systematics.
Also new for 2013 is a page entitled “Synthesis,” which can
be visited directly here:
All reference to conservation as a motivation or intent has
now been removed from the FWGNA website, insofar as possible. Henceforth the Freshwater Gastropods of North
America project will restrict itself to science.
Notes
[1] This is an expansion and refinement of the approach I first suggested for the 57 species of freshwater gastropods in:
- Toward the Scientific Ranking of Conservation Status - Part II [9Jan12]