An unknown snail discovered in Trento in the Muse greenhouse

In Trento, researchers from MUSE, the science museum, have discovered and cataloged a hitherto unknown animal a stone’s throw from their office, further confirmation that there is still a lot to understand about biodiversity and the way in which alien species spread and to know, even without making adventurous expeditions to exotic places. Researchers from the University of Siena and the Natural History Museum of the Accademia dei Fisiocritici have in fact discovered a new snail, a small terrestrial mollusc of just two centimeters, during one of the scientific samplings in the tropical greenhouse of the MUSE in Trento.

This section of the museum recreates a fragment of the forests of the Udzungwa Mountains, in Eastern Tropical Africa, on approximately 600 m2, where a research station in one of the most important and fragile biodiversity centers in the world, managed precisely by Muse and the Tanzanian National Park. During one of the routine operations, while sifting the soil in search of alien species, the researchers saw a small snail about two centimeters long, belonging to the family of Rathouisiidae. A more accurate morphological and molecular analysis, conducted in collaboration with the University of Poznan, in Poland, ascertained that the small invertebrate had never been identified before, was, in short, unknown to science.

To the little snail, which was presented to the scientific community with a scientific article in the journal Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, the name was given Barkeriella museensisin honor of the New Zealand malacologist (malacology is the branch of natural sciences that study mussels ed) Gary Barkerand of the MUSE of Trento, place of discovery. After the description it remains to understand what its area of ​​origin is, since it is not known how the snail arrived in the MUSE greenhouse. It is hypothesized that, as happens for many non-native species (and this is why continuous analyzes are carried out on the soil in the greenhouse) there Barkeriella museensis is entered the greenhouse with soil or with one of the plants. The family of terrestrial molluscs to which it belongs is widespread in East Asia and Australia, therefore research would be needed to understand if it is widespread in those areas in nature.

There discovery is important precisely to understand the dynamics of diffusion of some alien species and is part of the research project conducted by the University of Siena and the Accademia dei Fisiocritici Museum of Natural History, in collaboration with the University of Poznan, in Poland, and the National Biodiversity Future Center (NBFC) within the PNRR. The project is coordinated by Joseph Manganelli And Folco Giusti of the University of Siena, among the few Italian researchers who mainly deal with terrestrial molluscs

“The MUSE – he explains Deborah Barbatusresearcher at the University of Siena/NBFC, in a statement released by the museum – is one of the study areas which, together with other botanical gardens and scientific museums with greenhouses and gardens we are investigating in search of xenodiversity, that component of biodiversity made up of alien organisms, i.e. not native to the investigated territory. Our research sector is that of terrestrial and freshwater molluscs, which includes species often introduced in a completely accidental way with the transport of soil or exotic plants. Usually to find specimens we use the classic sampling methods used for soil fauna, i.e. visual research, collection of soil and litter to be examined in the laboratory”.

Andrea Benoccicurator of the Natural History Museum Accademia dei Fisiocritici, describes the discovery of Barkeriella museensis as follows: “Both in Trento and in other Italian cities we have found numerous alien species, some of which have never been reported before in Europe. The finding of the Barkeriella museensis is quite exceptional for its particularity: its reproductive apparatus is equipped with three different ducts (each of which opens independently) responsible for the exchange of gametes: a condition never observed up to now in terrestrial molluscs, which generally have two”.

It is not the first time that MUSE has contributed to the identification of new species around the world, but it is the first that becomes the territory of discovery. As he explains Massimo BernardiHead of Research and Collections at MUSE, “MUSE, in the last decade, through its research activities has led to the discovery of about 50 species, as a result of territorial exploration. Our collections contain over 700 holotypes, i.e. the reference specimens for the description of new species.This time, however, the MUSE becomes a place of research, proving that there is biodiversity to be discovered all around us, even in the places we think we know best, like a handful of soil in a tropical greenhouse of a museum visited by thousands of people every year”.