From unawareness to understanding: shedding light on Pomacea americanista

Abstract

In Tentacle issue 32, titled ‘Pomacea americanista: almost one hundred years of unawareness’ by Soria et al. (2024), the doctoral project of Abril Soria was presented. This project aims to determine the current and future status of Pomacea americanista, identify the threats it faces and propose conservation measures. This note provides an update on the progress of the project and the tasks to be carried out in the near future. The species was recently categorised as Endangered at the regional level for the Red List of Argentinian Molluscs. This situation highlights the need for further studies on the current status of the species, its distribution, the threats it faces and how these threats may be affecting it. Within this framework, Soria’s doctoral thesis seeks to address the above objectives in order to contribute to knowledge of the species, with the expectation of having a positive impact on its conservation status. Soria holds a doctoral scholarship from the National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET) at the Institute of Biological and Biomedical Sciences of the South (INBIOSUR), a joint institute of the Universidad Nacional del Sur and CONICET.