DNA barcoding data for springsnails

In desert environments, unique communities depend on groundwater at springs. There is a diverse radiation of small (<5 mm) snails found across the desert southwest in North America. Nearly all springsnail species are considered critically imperiled with their existence depending on maintenance of spring-flows in regions of declining water availability. Extant, endemic, springsnails in the Trans-Pecos region of Texas include one species of Pseudotryonia Hershler, 2001, five nominal Tryonia W. Stimpson, 1865 (Cochliopidae) and seven Pyrgulopsis Call & Pilsbry, 1886 (Hydrobiidae). Four of these snails are classified as endangered under the US Endangered Species Act. Survey work was conducted at the type and previously reported localities of named springsnails and 116 previously unsampled spring sites to locate and identify additional populations. Sequences of the DNA barcoding region were used to establish a database of known sequences from the named species and confirm identificati..., Our sampling plan included several potential methods, and they were deployed as appropriate depending on site conditions such as water depth and sediment type. The planned methods included drift net sampling over spring openings (1–2 days), dip net sampling, Surber sampling (3X per site), Bou-Rouch sampling (3X per site), and searching by eye and hand-collecting snails. We found snails primarily by hand-collections but at a few sites where the snails occurred in low abundances (Diamond Y spring, Karges Spring, Naegele Spring, Capote Creek Crossing) they were only found by dip net or Surber sampling. Our hand-collections included finding up to 60 individuals at a site for DNA barcoding and species characterization. Voucher specimens for new and resampled sites were placed into either the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences at Drexel University (ANSP) or the Edwards Aquifer Research and Data Center (EARDC). Some occurrence records are also included from the United States National Mus..., The data file is in a commonly-used format, Phylip that can be translated to other formats for DNA sequence analysis. It can be opened in MEGA, BioEdit, Geneious.