Land Snail Sphyradium doliolum (Stylommatophora Orculidae), in Ukraine and Moldova: Distribution, Habitats, Variability and Origin

Abstract

All existing data and most of the available materials on Sphyradium doliolum from Ukraine and Moldova are reviewed. The species is reported from 38 localities (some including several sites) on uplands east of the Carpathians, the Dnipro Upland and in the Crimean Mountains. It mostly inhabits the broadleaved forests, but in one locality was found in a forestless rocky meadow steppe at an altitude of ca. 1400 m in the Crimea. Statistical analysis of the morphometric shell characters shows a significant geographical variability between the populations of S. doliolum from the different parts of Ukraine and Moldova. The most prominent morphometric differences were found between the populations from the Crimean Mountains and from all other East European populations combined. An origin of S. doliolum in Eastern Europe is discussed. The results of the morphometric analyses support the hypothesis of the two different origins during the two separate periods for the populations of S. doliolum in the Crimean Mountains and in the East European Plain. These two groups of populations could be representing the two different lineages that perhaps could be of the two different subspecies, but their status requires additional studies involving molecular genetic methods and material from a wider area.