<i>Ecrobia ventrosa</i> (Montagu, 1803) (Truncatelloidea: Hydrobiidae) in the interior of Central Germany: identification and faunal history

ABSTRACT Numerous Quaternary and subrecent occurrences of brackish water snails (Truncatelloidea: Hydrobiidae, Cochliopidae[?]) have been recorded in northern Central Germany (Thuringia, Saxony-Anhalt). This high concentration of inland occurrences is unparalleled in Central Europe. The Holocene mass occurrences in the Mansfeld Lake region have become particularly well known. Today, brackish water snails are extinct in Central Germany. This makes the discovery of numerous mummified hydrobiid snails in the Regius Collection (Senckenberg Natural History Collections Dresden, Museum of Zoology), which Karl Regius was able to collect alive in 1948/1949 in a side ditch of the Sülze river north-east of Dodendorf, all the more significant. This is the only place in Central Germany where the snails have ever been found alive. This material provided the first opportunity to carry out a reliable identification using molecular genetic methods. Not only was Ecrobia ventrosa (Montagu, 1803) confirmed for Central Germany, but also extensive comparisons were made with 33 recent populations of this species from European and North African coasts. These showed that E. ventrosa from Dodendorf was most closely related to the populations of the Baltic Sea, the North Sea and the neighbouring Atlantic.