Mollusc collection of M.V. Gensytskyi in the State Natural History Museum of the NAS of Ukraine

The samples of land molluscs collected by M.V. Gensytskyi in 2017-2020 in the North-Western Azov region, mainly in the southern part of the Zaporizhzhia region, as well as in some adjacent areas of the Kherson and Donetsk regions of Ukraine, were transferred in February 2022 to the museum. The malacological collection of the museum was replenished by 637 storage units (samples) and more than 12 thousand specimens (shells of molluscs). The donated materials represent 22 taxa from 11 families. Shells of molluscs of the genera Cochlicopa and Helicopsis require additional identification. Chondrula tridens, represented by the subspecies Ch. tridens martynovi, Vallonia pulchella and V. costata have the largest number of samples. Ch. tridens martynovi, Xeropicta derbentina and Helix albescens predominate in the number of collected shells. Compared to the dissertation of M.V. Gensytskyi, single samples of Pupilla triplicata, Brephulopsis bidens and Xeropicta krynickii were also found in his collection. The sample of B. bidens from the Henichesk district of the Kherson region is the fourth known record of this species in Ukraine outside Crimea. P. triplicata has not been previously mentioned for the Zaporizhzhia region. It turned out that Phenacolimax annularis is more widespread in the south of the Zaporizhzhia region than it was described by M.V. Gensytskyi. In contrary, not a single shell of Monacha cartusiana was found among the materials transferred to the museum. The donated collection significantly supplemented the available stock materials, which represent the land mollusc fauna of the steppe zone of Ukraine in general and Zaporizhzhia region in particular. This will contribute to increasing the scientific potential of the malacological collection of the museum in relation to both the geography of samples and a better representation of various forms of intraspecific conchological variability. From 2022, the territory of research of M.V. Gensytskyi is under Russian occupation. The impact of hostilities may affect biological diversity, the distribution of some species, etc., which further increases the comparative value of such large-scale pre-war collections.