DATA PAPER Distribution records of apple snails (Pomacea spp.) in Japan collected during 2017–2019 through a citizen science project for introduced species conducted by the Osaka Museum of Natural History So Ishida Osaka Museum of Natural History, Higashi-Sumiyoshi, Osaka, Japan Correspondence So Ishida, Osaka Museum of Natural History, 1-23 Nagai Park, Higashi- Sumiyoshi, Osaka 546-0034, Japan. Email: iso@mus-nh.city.osaka.jp Funding information JSPS KAKENHI, Grant/Award Number: JP17H02027 Abstract Apple snails Pomacea canaliculata and Pomacea maculata are herbivorous fresh- water gastropods native to South America and are introduced species widespread in western and southern Japan. Although they affect rice culture and are invasive to native ecosystems, high-resolution distribution data are not available for these species. I mapped the distribution of Pomacea species using the citizen science approach, by asking volunteers to report the geographical location along with the presence or absence of apple snail egg capsules or snail shells during 2017–2019. In total, 1,304 present and 508 absent records were collected, which revealed the distribution outlines of apple snails, especially in the Kansai area. Here, I provide a dataset of observation dates, location coordinates, volunteer names, and supple- mental information. The complete data set for this abstract published in the Data Paper section of the journal is available in electronic format in MetaCat in JaLTER at http://db. cger.nies.go.jp/JaLTER/metacat/metacat/ERDP-2020-19.1/jalter-en. KEYWORDS apple snail, citizen science, museum education program, Pomacea, the world's worst invasive alien species 1 | INTRODUCTION The apple snails of the genus Pomacea (Ampullariidae; Figure 1) comprises freshwater gastropods native to the Americas, mostly in South America. Pomacea can- aliculata and Pomacea maculata were introduced into Japan in the 1980s and are widely found in western Honshu, Kyushu and the Nansei Islands (Matsukura, Okuda, Cazzaniga, & Wada, 2013; Mochida, 1991). P. canaliculata is listed in the 100 of the world's worst invasive alien species (Global Invasive Species Database, 2020). They are voracious herbivores and are known to cause damage to young rice plants (Mochida, 1991). Negative effects on native aquatic plants and freshwater snails are also anticipated (Hidaka, Mineta, & Tokuoka, 2007; Kwong, Chan, & Qiu, 2009). The agricultural offices of the Ministry and the local governments are exe- cuting a control program to protect rice crop produc- tion in which each office accumulates statistics of the damaged paddy field area. However, most of the location data are not open to the public. In addition, apple snails inhabit not only paddies but also canals, ponds, and rivers. Comprehensive information about the distribution of apple snails is not sufficiently publicized in Japan although it is a basic Received: 16 March 2020 Revised: 30 April 2020 Accepted: 7 May 2020 DOI: 10.1111/1440-1703.12152 1114 © 2020 The Ecological Society of Japan Ecological Research. 2020;35:1114–1118. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/ere