Marstonia castor (Beaverpond Marstonia)

[surroundx]

Beaverpond Marstonia declared extinct by USFWS

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced on 28 December 2017 the Beaverpond Marstonia (Marstonia castor), a freshwater snail from Georgia, is extinct. The announcement is in response to a 2010 petition from the Center for Biological Diversity seeking Endangered Species Act protection for the critically imperiled snail.

The snail was lost to extinction due to groundwater withdrawal for agriculture and urbanization, along with pollution from agricultural fields. The Service should have proposed protection for the Beaverpond Marstonia in 2011 but did not act on the petition until the Center sued the agency in 2016 to obtain a court-ordered deadline for the decision. The snail was first added to the candidate waiting list for federal protection in 1984.

Source: petermaas.nl/extinct/news/beaverpond-marstonia-declared-extinct-by-usfws/

[koeiyabe]

This species has only ever been known from the type locality, a creek in Crisp Co., Georgia (Burch 1989, Hershler 1994, Watson 2000). The extent of occurrence is 4 km2.

This species is only known from the type locality, Cedar Creek (which empties into the east side of Lake Blackshear reservoir) on the Flint River in Crisp Co., Georgia (Hershler 1994). Surveys in 1995 of 22 sites (including the type locality) on tributaries of the Flint River between Andersonville and Albany, Georgia, were unsuccessful in finding this species (Watson 2000), compared to over 50 collected specimens in 1973. This suggests a population decline.

www.iucnredlist.org/species/18961/1929774#population