Preliminary survey of the distribution of Corbicula fluminea (Muller, 1774) in Thailand

Abstract

Corbicula fluminea is a small-sized shellfish that lives in the river or at the bottom of a lake. This species is very sensitive to changes to their habitat. Today, there are numerous threats to the Corbicula fluminea habitat, especially river pollution. In central, north-eastern and southern part of Thailand, the habitat of Corbicula fluminea is greatly disrupted by agriculture activities and the flow of pesticides from agriculture area into rivers. In order to find out where Corbicula fluminea can be found in Thailand, a survey was conducted in central, north-eastern and southern part of Thailand. However, the other part of Thailand was not covered by this research due to financial and time constraint. The method utilised was by obtaining information from the villagers by means of informal conversational interview and observations, followed by the sampling collection conducted by the researchers using a special tool. The coordinate of each location where was recorded using the Garmin model GPSmap 62. Meanwhile, the digital calliper was used to measure shell height (H) and length (L). The results show that there is still a location from one river which is Ping river from the central part of Thailand and 3 places from 2 rivers which are Mun and Chi rivers from the north-eastern part of Thailand, where the C. fluminea can still be found. On the other hand, there are four places from three rivers, namely Pattani, Saiburiand Ka Lae Ku Bo rivers in the southern part of Thailand, where C. fluminea was collected. Meanwhile, from the survey results, it clearly shows that the outer shell colour of C. fluminea depends on the type of substrate but not influenced by the land use. This data is expected to be used by the authorities responsible for finding conservation and restoration methods to ensure that C. fluminea does not disappear from Thailand. Besides, the data can also help to ensure that the source of income of traditional fishermen who depend on C. fluminea is not affected.