Malacologica Bohemoslovaca

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The first records of the dot snail Paralaoma servilis (Shuttleworth, 1852) and the black-headed slug Krynickillus melanocephalus Kaleniczenko, 1851 in Czechia

Dagmar Říhová, Alena Kocurková, Štěpánka Podroužková & Lucie Juřičková

The number of non-native species of terrestrial snails in Czechia has been increasing in recent years, probably due to climate change and the transport of goods as a result of intensive trade. The two newest species – Paralaoma servilis (Shuttleworth, 1852) and Krynickillus melanocephalus Kaleniczenko, 1851 – were recorded in autumn 2024 in Prague-Dejvice (Dolní Šárka).
The native range of P. servilis, a micro-snail from the Punctidae family, spans the southwestern Pacific Rim, and the species has an adventitious distribution in North America, Europe, and the Macaronesian islands in the eastern Atlantic. Four empty shells were found in flood debris; the exact location in Prague is therefore unknown, and follow-up survey is needed.
Krynickillus melanocephalus is native to Anatolia, the Caucasus, north-east Turkey, and north-west Iran, but since the 1990s it has been spreading westward into Europe. Its occurrence in Czechia has been anticipated in recent years, and the first two sites were found in October 2024 in Prague and Hradec Králové. Because strikingly coloured adults occur in the autumn months, other locations (Pardubice, Vyškov, Sázava, and Paskov) were discovered thanks to citizen science in the autumn of 2025. We assume that K. melanocephalus occurs in more locations in Czechia, which, however, have yet to be mapped.

Keywords: non-native gastropods, human-assisted expansion of range, spreading by means of the global trade, first occurrence

Říhová D., Kocurková A., Podroužková J. & Juřičková L., 2026: The first records of the dot snail Paralaoma servilis (Shuttleworth, 1852) and the black-headed slug Krynickillus melanocephalus Kaleniczenko, 1851 in Czechia. – Malacologica Bohemoslovaca, 25: 24–32. https://doi.org/10.5817/MaB2026-25-24

Publication date: 15. 4. 2026. PDF (24.1 MB)