Pomacea paludosa

Pomacea paludosa, common name the Florida applesnail, is a species of freshwater snail with an operculum, an aquatic gastropod mollusk in the family Ampullariidae, the apple snails.

Pomacea paludosa
Colored engraving of a live Pomacea paludosa made by Helen Lawson († 1854) and published in 1845 A monograph of the freshwater univalve Mollusca of the United States: including notices of species in other parts of North America by Samuel Stehman Haldeman.
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Mollusca
Class:
Gastropoda
(unranked):
clade Caenogastropoda
informal group Architaenioglossa
Superfamily:
Ampullarioidea
Family:
Ampullariidae
Genus:
Pomacea
Subgenus:
Pomacea
Species:
P. paludosa
Binomial name
Pomacea paludosa
(Say, 1829)

Shell description
Five views of a shell of Pomacea paludosa

This species is the largest freshwater gastropod native to North America.[2]

The shell is globose in shape. The whorls are wide, the spire is depressed, and the aperture is narrowly oval.[2] The shells are brown in color, and have a pattern of stripes.

The shell is 60 mm in both length and width.[2]

Distribution

The indigenous distribution of this snail is central and southern Florida,[3] Cuba and Hispaniola.[4]

The nonindigenous distribution includes northern Florida. The species has also been found in Georgia, Oahu, Hawaii (Devick 1991), Louisiana, and Oklahoma.[4]

Ecology
The maturation of eggs of Pomacea paludosa: freshly laid eggs in a thick mucus matrix have a salmon coloration (left). Mature eggs in calcified shells are pinkish white in color (right).

This is a tropical species. It is amphibious, and can survive in water bodies that dry out during the dry season.[2]

Applesnails have both gills and lungs.

References
  1. Cordeiro, J. & Perez, K. (2011). "Pomacea paludosa". The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN. 2011: e.T189339A8718219. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2011-2.RLTS.T189339A8718219.en. Retrieved 15 January 2018.
  2. Burch, J. B. 1982. North American freshwater snails. Walkerana 1(4):217-365.
  3. Thompson, F.G. 1984. The freshwater snails of Florida: a manual for identification. University of Florida Press, Gainesville, Florida, 94 pp.
  4. Dundee, D. S. 1974. Catalog of introduced molluscs of eastern North America (north of Mexico). Sterkiana 55:1-37.

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Further reading
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