Motsametia borutzkii (Shadin, 1932)

Grego, Jozef, Mumladze, Levan, Falniowski, Andrzej, Osikowski, Artur, Rysiewska, Aleksandra, Palatov, Dimitry M. & Hofman, Sebastian, 2020, Revealing the stygobiotic and crenobiotic molluscan biodiversity hotspot in Caucasus: Part I. The phylogeny of stygobiotic Sadlerianinae Szarowska, 2006 (Mollusca, Gastropoda, Hydrobiidae) from Georgia with descriptions of five new genera and twenty-one new species, ZooKeys 955, pp. 1-77 : 1

Motsametia borutzkii (Shadin, 1932) Fig. 18

Motsametia borutzkii M. V. Vinarski, D. M. Palatov & P. Glöer, 2014 - J. Nat. Hist., 48: 2241 fig. 2B, 2244 fig. 5A, and 2249 fig. 7E

Horatia borutzkii A. V. Shadin, 1932 - Arch. Molluskenkd. 64: tab. 1, fig. 1.

Conservation status.

The species is known from a single location and AOO is smaller than 10 km2. There is also indication of stochastic human driven habitat pollution and introduction of possibly competing invasive species ( Ferrissia californica ) ( Vinarski and Palatov 2018) leading to severe population decline since 2009 with scarce occurrence of live individuals. Therefore, it is assessed as Critically endangered (EN) B2.

Remarks.

Since the field work of Dimitry Palatov in 2009-2012 ( Vinarski et al. 2014), we have recorded a continuous population decrease of M. borutzkii at the only known locality, with live individuals becoming scarce. It is possible that pollution of groundwater from settlements just above the cave could influence the groundwater quality. The pollution of the cave stream can be traced by increased micro-plastic particles present in the cave sediments. The population of Ferrissia cf. californica (Rowell, 1863) in the cave does not seem to have an invasive character, but could lead to a food competition with M. borutzkii ( Vinarski and Palatov 2018). The presence of Ferrissia seem to be an incidental migrant via sinking surface water.

Figures

Figure 18. Motsametia borutzkii (Shadin, 1932) A-D Imereti, Kutaisi, Iazoni (Tskal-Tsiteli) Cave. Photograph J. Grego.