Endangered
Potomida littoralis
Potomida littoralis
Potomida littoralis is a bivalve in the family Unionidae (order Unionida), recorded as Endangered.
Range and habitat
The species is found in southwestern Europe (France, Spain and Portugal) and northwestern Africa (Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia). Potomida littoralis typically occurs in the middle to lower river sections, but can occasionally be found in the upper parts of the calcium-rich rivers. It is also called black river mussel.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Breeding
Freshwater mussels bury in the bed and live for decades if the river still runs and the host fish still spawn.
In crisis
According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, this species is endangered and in decline. Canalization of river channels, water pollution, and dam construction are major threats. Water extraction is harming populations in much of its range except in France.
Potomida littoralis is Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.
Sources
Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Potomida littoralis, Wikidata item Q14669516. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.
