ABSTRACT
The following species list is an updated, expanded, and emended version of the species list given by Petuch and Myers, 2014 (pp. 156-167). As can be seen from this faunal list, only 113 species and several named forms of mollusks, including both gastropods and bivalves, are now known from the Ten Thousand Islands. These were sampled over a period of time extending from 2013 to 2021. This small number contrasts greatly with more than 1,200 species of mollusks known from the nearby Florida Keys (Petuch and Myers, 2014). As discussed in the Introduction, this faunal impoverishment is due to the Ten Thousand Islands area having cooler water temperatures during the winter months and having wildly fluctuating salinities during the hot, rainy summer months. These harsh and ecologically-stressful conditions allow only the hardiest and most physiologically-plastic organisms to survive, resulting in a greatly impoverished malacofauna. The molluscan fauna of the Ten Thousand Islands is listed here systematically by family.
