Margarya monodi

Margarya monodi
Conservation status
Critically Endangered (IUCN 3.1)[1][2]
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Mollusca
Class:	Gastropoda
(unranked):	clade Caenogastropoda informal group Architaenioglossa
Superfamily:	Viviparoidea
Family:	Viviparidae
Genus:	Margarya
Species:	M. monodi
Binomial name
Margarya monodi Dautzenberg & Fisher, 1905

Margarya monodi is a species of large operculate freshwater snail, an aquatic gastropod mollusk in the family Viviparidae, the river snails.

This species appears to be endemic to Lake Dianchi, in Yunnan Province, China.

These snails are collected commercially and used as medicine and food.

Threats

This snail is no longer abundant as it was before the 1980s, when fishermen took as much as 20 kg a day per person. Currently during the open fishing season the fishermen can find only 2 kg a day. In 1999 there were still snails in the eastern part of the lake but by 2009 the snail was found only in the 50 km² of the lake that is near the outflow.

Threats to this snail species' survival include organic and inorganic pollution, overharvesting and some Introduced species of predatory fish.

References

1. ^ "The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species^TM 2009 update. Mollusc Facts". 5 pp., accessed 14 September 2010.
2. ^ Di L., Jiang Y., Aldridge D. & McIvor A. (2008). Margarya monodi. In: IUCN 2010. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2010.3. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloaded on 14 September 2010.