Record of the Zebra mussel (Dreissena polymorpha) albino from SW Slovakia

Tomáš ČEJKA* & Norbert DOKOUPIL
*Institute of Zoology, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Dúbravská cesta 9, SK-84104 Bratislava

Fig. 1 The Zebra mussel albino from the gravel pit near 

Dunajská Lužná, SW Slovakia (Photo N. Dokoupil).

The bivalve Dreissena polymorpha (Pallas, 1771) is the European species with former Pontic range, known only from 19th century in Slovakia and other Central and West European countries (Ložek 1956). The Zebra mussel albinos are known e.g. from Poland (Boron et al. 2004), Great Britain (Micklewright 2005) and Canada (Mackie 1991); the albino form has never been found in Slovakia until now as well as in former Czechoslovakia (Ložek 1956, Beran pers. comm. 2005).
Material examined: N: 48°06'00", E: 17°15'45"; DFS (grid reference number of the Databank of Slovak Fauna): 7969b, 130 m a.s.l., Jazero Rovinka (=Veľká Voda) gravel pit near the Dunajská Lužná town, SW Slovakia. Bottom substrate in the littoral zone: Silted gravel and sand, no macrophytes, 5 August 2005, one albino adult in the whole colony attached to submerged tree trunk. R. Šišulák leg., T. Čejka det., N. Dokoupil coll., first record of albino individual from Slovakia.

References
Boron A, Woznicki P, Skuza L, Zielinski R. 2004 Cytogenetic characterization of the Zebra Mussel Dreissena polymorpha (Pallas) from Miedwie Lake, Poland. Folia. Biol. (Krakow) 52 (1-2): 33-8.
Ložek V. 1956: Klíč československých měkkýšů. Vyd. SAV, Bratislava, 436 pp.
Mackie G.L. 1991: Biology of the exotic zebra mussel, Dreissena polymorpha, in relation to native bivalves and its potential impact in Lake St. Clair. Hydrobiologia 219 (1): 251-268.
Micklewright S. 2005: Zebra Mussels: A Warning and History. http://www.wbrc.org.uk/WorcRecd/Issue11/ZMussel.htm