Pila | |
---|---|
A shell and operculum of Pila ampullacea | |
Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Mollusca |
Class: | Gastropoda |
(unranked): | clade Caenogastropoda informal group Architaenioglossa |
Superfamily: | Ampullarioidea |
Family: | Ampullariidae |
Subfamily: | Ampullariinae |
Tribe: | Ampullariini |
Genus: |
Pila Röding, 1798 |
Diversity | |
about 30 species |
Pila is a genus of large freshwater snails with an operculum, African and Asian apple snails, aquatic gastropod mollusks in the family Ampullariidae, the apple snails.
Distribution of the genus Pila include Africa, Madagascar, southern Asia and Indo-Pacific islands.
Species within the genus Pila include:
subgenus Pila
subgenus Turbinicola Annandale & Prashad, 1921
The shell of Pila sp. is used in traditional ethnomedicine for weakness by Saharia people in Rajasthan, India.
Pila ampullacea and Pila pesmei are some of the rice field snail species traditionally eaten in Thailand that have been displaced by the invasive Golden Apple Snail, Pomacea canaliculata.