Bulinus forskalii
Species of gastropod
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Bulinus forskalii is a species of tropical freshwater snail with a sinistral shell, an aquatic gastropod mollusk in the family Bulinidae, the ramshorn snails and their allies.[2]
| Bulinus forskalii | |
|---|---|
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| an apertural view of the shell of Bulinus forskalii | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Mollusca |
| Class: | Gastropoda |
| Superorder: | Hygrophila |
| Family: | Bulinidae |
| Genus: | Bulinus |
| Species: | B. forskalii |
| Binomial name | |
| Bulinus forskalii (Ehrenberg, 1831) | |
| Synonyms[1] | |
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Distribution
Bulinus forskalii is an afrotropical[1] species which occurs in number of countries in Africa:
- Northern Africa: only in Egypt and Sudan.[1]
- Western Africa: Benin,[3] Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Senegal[4] and Togo.[1]
- Eastern Africa: Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Somalia, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.[1]
- Central Africa: Angola, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon.[1] An extreme variant of Bulinus forskalii lives also on São Tomé Island.[5]
- Southern Africa: South Africa and Eswatini.[1]
This species has been recently introduced to Madagascar.[6]
Its presence is uncertain in Mauritania, Nigeria and in Sierra Leone.[1]
Ecology
The natural habitats for this species are lake margins, swamps, marshes and wetland areas.[1] It lives in all types of freshwater bodies and it has been found mainly in dams and brooks in South Africa.[7] The substratum is often muddy.[7]
Bulinus forskalii is a hermaphroditic species.[8] Self-fertilization can occur.[9]
Parasites of Bulinus forskalii include:
- as intermediate host for Schistosoma guineensis[8]
- as intermediate host for Schistosoma intercalatum[5]
- as intermediate host for Schistosoma haematobium – experimental infection in Niger,[10] but incompatible in South Africa[7]
- as intermediate host for Gastrodiscus aegyptiacus,[7] that causes gastrodiscosis in horses[11]
- three species of paramphistomes (superfamily Paramphistomoidea)[12]
It has been found incompatible with Schistosoma mattheei in South Africa.[7]
