Limnoperna fortunei

The Chinese freshwater mussel Limnoperna fortunei is an invasive fouling pest of water supply systems in Hong Kong, Korea, Taiwan, Japan, and more recently, South America. It was introduced into the Rio de la Plata estuary (Argentina) in 1991, most likely by the discharge of planktonic larvae with ship ballast water. It has not yet been detected in North America, but it should be considered as a probable future invader (Ricciardi 1998).