The first records of an invasive land snail Cepaea nemoralis(Stylommatophora: Helicidae) in Central and Southern Ukraine

Abstract

Two colonies of an invasive West European land snail Cepaea nemoralis are reported from Kyiv region of Ukraine, as well as a third locality where snails were present in 2019, but no living individuals were found in 2020. One more locality is reported from Odessa City in Southern Ukraine. These localities are the most south-eastern ones for the range of C. nemoralis and are the first known records of this species in Ukraine outside its western regions, with closest previously published confirmed colonies in more than 400 km. Distribution of this species in Eastern Europe is discussed, it is argued that invasion ofC. nemoralis is probably driven by the same processes as invasion of the Spanish slug, Arion vulgaris, that invaded Eastern Europe during the last decades.