Biogeography of the Living Lymnaeidae
Résumé
The distribution of the recent Lymnaeidae across continents and zoogeo- graphical regions of the world is reviewed, with a brief characteristic of the geo- graphical distribution of each extant lymnaeid genus. The quantitative estimates of the similarity between the lymnaeid faunas of different continents and the largest zoogeographical regions are provided and discussed. It is shown that the highest taxonomic level of endemism in the family is observed in the Nearctic region, and the overall faunal similarity is highest among the Palaearctic and Oriental region, whereas the Australian fauna is the most peculiar. A special section of the article is devoted to a review of the invasive lymnaeid species and the possible consequences of their invasions to the non-native areas.