Aquatic Invasions (2011) Volume 6, Supplement 1: S119–S124 doi: 10.3391/ai.2011.6.S1.027 Open Access © 2011 The Author(s). Journal compilation © 2011 REABIC Aquatic Invasions Records Distribution of the invasive bivalve Sinanodonta woodiana (Lea, 1834) in Croatia Jasna Lajtner* and Petar Crnčan Department of Zoology, Division of Biology, Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb, Rooseveltov trg 6, HR-10000 Zagreb, Croatia E-mail:
[email protected] (JL),
[email protected] (PC) *Corresponding author Received: 7 June 2011 / Accepted: 29 September 2011 / Published online: 12 October 2011 Abstract The Chinese pond mussel Sinanodonta woodiana is an invasive bivalve species present in the flowing and standing waters of most of Europe. Field research conducted from 2007 to 2011 indicated that this species has colonised the entire eastern part of Croatia, and that its spread westward is continuing. During our study, S. woodiana was recorded at 54 localities. Key words: Chinese pond mussel, Sinanodonta woodiana, Unionidae, invasive species, Croatia 2009), and most recently in the United States Introduction (Bogan et al. 2011). It is believed that the primary pathway of The Chinese pond mussel Sinanodonta woodiana introduction of this species to Europe was with (Lea, 1834) is a species native to East and Asian fish species, such as silver carp (Hypo- South–East Asia. Some authors have placed this phthalmichthys molitrix Valenciennes, 1844), species within the order Anodonta though newer bighead carp (Aristichthys nobilis Ricardson, taxonomic research has placed it in the order 1844) and grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella Sinanodonta (Bogatov and Sayenko 2002). In Valenciennes, 1844), primarily introduced to Europe it was first discovered in Romanian fish regulate aquatic vegetation in fish ponds farms at Cefa-Oradea in 1979 (Sàrkàny-Kiss (Paunovic et al.