Biomphalaria tenagophila
| Biomphalaria tenagophila | |
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| Apical, apertural and umbilical views of the shell of Biomphalaria tenagophila. Scale bar is 3 mm. | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Mollusca |
| Class: | Gastropoda |
| (unranked): | clade Heterobranchia clade Euthyneura clade Panpulmonata clade Hygrophila |
| Superfamily: | Planorboidea |
| Family: | Planorbidae |
| Subfamily: | Planorbinae |
| Tribe: | Biomphalariini |
| Genus: | Biomphalaria |
| Species: | B. tenagophila |
| Binomial name | |
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Biomphalaria tenagophila (Orbigny, 1835) |
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| Synonyms | |
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Biomphalaria tenagophila is a species of air-breathing freshwater snail, an aquatic pulmonate gastropod mollusk in the family Planorbidae, the ram's horn snails.
This species is medically important pest, because of transferring the disease intestinal schistosomiasis. (Intestinal schistosomiasis is the most widespread of all types of schistosomiasis).
The parasite Schistosoma mansoni, which Biomphalaria snails carry, infects about 83.31 million people worldwide.
The shell of this species, like all planorbids is sinistral in coiling, but is carried upside down and thus appears to be dextral.
Biomphalaria tenagophila was originally discovered and described under the name Planorbis tenagophilus by the French naturalist Alcide d'Orbigny in 1835. Orbigny (1835) referred its distribution to Corrientes Province, Argentina and to Santa Cruz Department, Bolivia (referred as "Santa-Cruz et Chiquitos"). But Orbigny himself later limited its distribution to Ensenada, Buenos Aires Province, Argentina in 1837.
Subspecies recognized in this species include:
There are also three "old-style" proposals of subspecies, based on shell characteristics:
History of discoveries summarized Paraense (2001).
A cladogram showing phylogenic relations of species in the genus Biomphalaria:
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Wikipedia