The freshwater habitats of the Eastern Congo are among the least investigated areas on the African continent. This severely restricts our understanding of the composition and distribution of the gastropod and bivalve communities in this region. This lack of knowledge, in combination with very limited recent collections, hampers the phylogenetic assessment of several molluscan taxa on the Pan-African scale and conservation efforts targeting this most prominent taxon of the macrozoobenthos. We here report on species obtained in the Eastern Congo in 2010. In total, 20 gastropod and bivalve taxa were collected from 24 freshwater habitats of the Nile and the Congo drainage system. By compiling faunal and taxonomic data we also aim to provide information of relevance to conservation efforts.

To cite this paper: Schultheiß, R., Ndeo, O.W., Malikwisha, M., Marek, C., Bößneck, U. & Albrecht, Ch. 2011. Freshwater molluscs of the Eastern Congo: notes on taxonomy, biogeography and conservation. African Invertebrates 52 (2): 265-284.