48. Physella acuta (Draparnaud, 1805)

Findings in Serbia.

Phvsa acuta: Matoničkin et al. (1975); Jovanović (1990); Arambašić (1994); Karaman & Živić (2001); Marković et al. (2012, 2015); Martinović-Vitanović et al. (2013); Novaković (2014).

Physa (Physella) acuta: Karaman (2001); Paunović et al. (2007 a).

Haitia acuta: Karaman (2005).

Physella (Costatella) acuta: Karaman & Karaman (2007).

Physella acuta: Frank et al. (1990); Jovanović (1995 a); Reh et al. (1997); Novaković (2012, 2013, 2014); Marković et al. (2013); Raković et al. (2016).

Common name. European Physa, tadpole snail, bladder snail and acute bladder snail.

Morphology. Medium-sized snail (up to 16 mm /height). Sinistral, glossy, conical shell with acute apex. Mantle lacks finger-like extensions, and has gold spots, easily visible below the shell surface. Animal is black with violet hue. For more details see Welter-Schultes (2012: 56, figures in the middle and the top of the page).

Distribution and ecology. Nearctic species, invasive in Europe (France as the first recipient region), present in Southern, Western and Central Europe. Standing and slowly flowing waters, tolerates drought and higher water temperatures. Prefers meso-to eutrophic waters with a muddy bottom (Glöer 2019). Widespread in Serbia: Danube, Sava, Tisza, Velika Morava, Zapadna Morava, Južna Morava, Karaš, Mlava, Nišava, Toplica, Brestovačka reka Rivers and DTD canals. Novaković (2014) has reported the highest abundances of this snail in medium-sized rivers with gravel-rocky bottom in central Serbia (Despotovica, Lepenica and Toplica Rievrs).

Other remarks. Morphologically it resembles Physella gyrina (Say 1821), and can be misidentified. On the IUCN Red List it has been assessed as LC (Van Damme et al. 2017).