Killer shrimp	Status LU: present. 1st record: 2006.
	Killercrevette	Status Eur.: established.
	Crevette tueuse	RA: ISEIA: A1, Black List. Harmonia+: 0,50
	Großer Höckerflohkrebs	Wikipedia: | Wikispecies: n/a (2020)
	Pontokaspische Vlokreeft	Back to the list of invertebrates

Report the species

→ Report Dikerogammarus villosus to the National Museum of Natural History.

Brief description

Dikerogammarus villosus (Sowinsky, 1894) is a freshwater amphipod originating from the Ponto-Caspian region. Its range expansion began in the late twentieth century and was associated with re-opening of the shipping canal between the Danube River and Main River (Vaate et al., 2002). Large body size, extremely voracious predatory behaviour, high fecundity and wide environmental tolerance make this amphipod a very successful invader of European waters. Invasion of D. villosus often results in significant local reduction or even extinction of native amphipods and other macroinvertebrates on which it preys (CABI 2019).

D. villosus is included on the list of the 100 most invasive exotic species of Europe (Devin & Beisel 2009).

Status and distribution in Luxembourg

Dikerogammarus villosus (Sowinsky, 1894) was first recorded in 2006: several specimen collected on 2006-05-12 in the river Moselle near Stadtbredimus were discovered in the Museums collections in July 2021 (Weigand in litt.). Another observation was made on 2018-06-20 in the river Sure near Wasserbillig / Langsur (MNHNL, iNaturalist & GBIF 2021). Accordingly, the Killer shrimp has been moved from the Alert List (Ries et al. 2017: 68) to the Black List.

Risk assessment

ISEIA protocol

Following the discovery of the Killer shrimp in July 2021 in the Museums collections (Weigand in litt.), the species was reassessed on 2021-07-29 to A1 (3+2+3+3) = Black List by C. Ries. Initial assessment: A0 (3+2+3+3) = Alert List (Ries et al. 2017: 68).

Harmonia+ protocol

Overall risk score 0,50 = (Overall Invasion score 0,82 x Overall Impact score 0,61) (evaluated by Tiago De Sousa, Manou Pfeiffenschneider and Roland Proess).

Worldwide distribution

Bibliography

• CABI, 2019. Dikerogammarus villosus. In: Invasive Species Compendium. Wallingford, UK: CAB International. URL: www.cabi.org/isc [accessed 2020-03-13]
• Devin, S. & J.-N. Beisel, 2009. Dikerogammarus villosus (Sowinsky), killer shrimp (Gammaridae, Crustacea). In: Handbook of alien species in Europe. Springer, 309.
• MNHNL, iNaturalist & GBIF, 2021. Dikerogammarus villosus in MNHNL-mdata, online portal combining species observation from Recorder-Lux, iNaturalist and GBIF. National Museum of Natural History, Luxembourg. URL: https://mdata.mnhn.lu [accessed 2020-03-13]
• Ries, C., A. Arendt, C. Braunert, S. Christian, A. Dohet, A. Frantz, G. Geimer, M. Hellers, J. A. Massard, X. Mestdagh, R. Proess, N. Schneider & M. Pfeiffenschneider, 2017. Environmental impact assessment and black, watch and alert list classification after the ISEIA Protocol of invertebrates in Luxembourg. Bull. Soc. Nat. luxemb. 119: 63-70. [PDF 360 KB]