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RESEARCH PAPER
First record of Arion ater s.l. (Gastropoda: Arionidae) in Ukraine
1
Department of Biosystematics and Evolution, State Museum of Natural History, Ukraine
2
School of Biology, V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University, Ukraine
3
Department of Biology and Ecology, Vasyl Stefanyk Precarpathian National University, Ukraine
Submission date: 2024-09-05
Final revision date: 2024-10-07
Acceptance date: 2024-10-12
Online publication date: 2024-11-20
Corresponding author
Nina Gural-Sverlova
Department of Biosystematics and Evolution, State Museum of Natural History, Theatralna St 18, 79008, Lviv, Ukraine
Department of Biosystematics and Evolution, State Museum of Natural History, Theatralna St 18, 79008, Lviv, Ukraine
KEYWORDS
ABSTRACT
Slugs in the Arion ater complex have been reliably recorded in Ukraine for the first time. In recent years, large specimens with an intense black colouration and very prominent skin tubercles have been observed in two neighbouring villages of the Bohorodchany district of the Ivano-Frankivsk region, Stara Huta and Huta. Even externally, they were very different from Arion vulgaris, which has already become common in western Ukraine. The structure of the distal genitalia of such slugs collected in Stara Huta in early July 2024 is similar to the older descriptions and images of Arion rufus. However, DNA barcoding classifies them as A. ater s.s. We assume that A. ater s.l. could have been accidentally introduced into the studied area from abroad together with ornamental plants. The initial source of the slug dispersal here could have been the administrative territory of the Syniohora National Nature Park or the presidential residence of the same name located nearby. For comparison, a map of known records of A. vulgaris in Ukraine is shown, only a few of which have been anatomically verified so far.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We are grateful to all persons who photographed large arionid slugs in different parts of Ukraine and posted their observations in citizen science databases or on Facebook. We especially thank those who observed A. ater s.l. in the area later studied by us: Olena Dmytrenko (2022, Stara Huta, iNaturalist, observation No. 115747758), Svitlana Shmidt (2023, Huta, Facebook group, dedicated to the animal world of Ukraine). With the kind permission of Svitlana Shmidt, one of her images, taken in the area of Sumarynska street, is used in this paper.
Laboratory work was supported by the Academic Sanctuaries Fund created by XTX Markets. The authors are also grateful to Peter Trontelj and colleagues from Ljubljana University for their help with laboratory equipment and Explogen LLC (Lviv) for rapid and reliable sequencing service.
We express our deep gratitude to Heike Reise (Senckenberg Museum of Natural History Görlitz, Germany) and the anonymous reviewers whose comments improved our manuscript.
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