Helicigona lapicidaBy John Platt Poor water quality and habitat loss are driving Ireland’s terrestrial and freshwater snails, along with related species into extinction, according to new research by the National Biodiversity Data Center (NBDC), a three-year-old organization established to study that country’s biodiversity.

The study (pdf) of nonmarine Irish mollusks found that of 150 species, one third are threatened with extinction. Two are now regionally extinct, five critically endangered, 14 endangered, 26 vulnerable and six near threatened. (These classifications are those of the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, to which this report’s data has been contributed.) Of the 150 species in Ireland, 15 are invasive, including the zebra mussel (Dreissena polymorpha), which is outcompeting native swan mussels and duck mussels (Anodonta cygnea and A. anatina). The extinct species include the lapidary snail (Helicigona lapicida), which was last observed in Ireland in 1968, and the mud pond snail (Omphiscola glabra), which the NBDC says was “lost to habitat destruction” in 1979. …

Ireland’s failed snails: Two species already extinct, dozens of other mollusks endangered