New records of bivalves from the Iraqi coast

Abstract

Six marine bivalves species were recorded from the north west of the Arabian Gulf, Iraqi coast from 2020 to 2021. The species are Acar plicata (Dillwyn, 1817) (family Arcidae), Sunetta effossa (Hanley, 1843) (family Veneridae), Scissileda tropica (Melvill, 1897) (family Yoldiidae), Protapes cor (Sowerby, 1853) (family Veneridae), Circentia callipyga (Born, 1778) (family Veneridae) and Acrosterigma lacunosa (Reeve, 1845) (family Cardiidae). These records raise the number of marine bivalves known from the Iraqi coast to 38 species.

Checklist of Bivalvia (Mollusca) in Iraq

“…Arabian Gulf (Okash et al, 2022), and Western Europe (Hilbish et al, 2002). (Yasser et al, 2023). Kuwait (Al-Kandari et al, 2020).…”

“…Northwest and south-east of the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman (Saeedi et al, 2010). (Yasser et al, 2023).Thailand (Wells et al, 2021). (Yasser et al, 2022).…”

“…A few studies concerned with the systematic study of mussels in Iraq were conducted, and many of the recorded species are considered synonyms for other species, many others are needed to be updated. In the earlier studies Annandale (1918) described some bivalve species of his collections from Iraq; some bivalvian species were described by Ahmed (1975), another species of bivalve were recorded in Iraq by Al-Hassan and Al-Hasani(1985), five more marine species were added to Iraqi malacofauna by Ali et al (2017), recently, Bogan et al (2021) recorded the freshwater mussel Sinanodonta woodiana (Lea, 1834) in Iraq; then Yasser et al (2022) published a checklist that included the marine species, in this checklist, 32 taxa were reported including four species were described for the first time to Iraqi malacofauna, lastly, six other marine species were added to malacofauna of Iraq by Yasser et al (2023) and Bashê (2022) made a study about the freshwater mussel Unio tigridis in the north of Iraq. Yasser et al (2022).…”