Cochlodina costata (C. Pfeiffer, 1828) (Gastropoda: Pulmonata: Clausiliidae) in Poland

Abstract

An endangered species, Cochlodina costata (C. Pfeiffer), believed to be extinct in Poland, was found on Mt. Mi3ek (Kaczawskie Mts, SW. Poland). Cochlodina costata (C. Pfeiffer, 1828) is an East Alpine-Dinaric species, with insular localities in Franconian Jura, and through the Czech-Moravian Upland to the Sudetes. Allegedly it was recorded from the Transcarpathian part of Ukraine (cf. LIKHAREV 1962, RIEDEL 1988), but it is not included in the recent, unpublished check-list of Ukrainian terrestrial gastropods (SVERLOVA personal communication). It was always regarded as very rare in Poland. Nineteenth and early twentieth century authors recorded it from several localities in the Kaczawskie Mts (W. Sudetes): Mt. Po3om near Wojcieszow – type locality for C. silesiaca A. Schmidt (SCHOLTZ 1845, SCHMIDT 1868, REINHARDT 1874, CLESSIN 1882, 1884, MERKEL 1887, 1894), Mt. Mi3ek near Wojcieszow (MERKEL 1894), vicinity of Wojcieszow (EHRMANN 1933), P3onina near Wojcieszow (SCHMIDT 1868, CLESSIN 1882, MERKEL 1894, EHRMANN 1933), and vicinity of Jelenia Gora [most probably also the Kaczawskie Mts] (MERKEL 1894, EHRMANN 1933). SCHOLTZ (1843) and PAX (1921) recorded it from the Œle?a mountain near Wroc3aw. Imprecise mentions of its occurrence: “Silesia” (SCHOLTZ 1843, 1852, O. BOETTGER 1878, MERKEL 1884, WESTERLUND 1884, C. R. BOETTGER 1926), “mountains of Silesia” (GEYER 1909, 1927), “Silesia and the Sudetes” (URBANSKI 1947), “Sudetes” (URBANSKI 1957, LIKHAREV 1962) refer to the localities in the Kaczawskie Mts and/or Œle?a mountain. According to WIKTOR (1956, 1964, 2004) in the first half of the 20th c. it became extinct on Mt. Sle?a and Mt. Po3om, and later also on Mt. Mi3ek. No specimens from any of the sites in the Kaczawskie Mts or on Œle?a mountain could be found in MERKEL’s and PAX’s collections at the Natural History Museum, Wroc3aw University, but SCHOLTZ’s collection contains two lots, one from P3onina, labelled “Clausiliastra commutata” [= Cochlodina costata], another from Mt. Po3om, labelled “Clausiliastra commutata f. silesiaca”. The last record from Mt. Mi3ek was from 1962 (WIKTOR 1964), and 20 shells are in the collection of the Natural History Museum in Wroc3aw. Later, repeated attempts, by several persons, to re-find it in any of the sites in the Kaczawskie Mts (POKRYSZKO 1984, PAKIET 1993) or Mt. Œle?a failed, though numerous subfossil shells were found on Mt. Mi3ek, in deposits dated as Atlantic climatic optimum. PAKIET (1993) attributed its extinction to climatic reasons which view, in his opinion, was “supported by the parallel extinction of Helicodonta obvoluta”, another species found in the site as subfossil. In July 2003 we visited Mt Mi3ek (Fig. 1) to sample terrestrial malacocoenoses of Sudetic beech forests. Vol. 12(4): 189–192