Small pond snail

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Small pond snail
Small pond snail (Galba truncatula)

Small pond snail ( Galba truncatula )

Systematics
Order : Lung snails (pulmonata)
Subordination : Water lung snails (Basommatophora)
Superfamily : Lymnaeoidea
Family : Mud snails (Lymnaeidae)
Genre : Galba
Type : Small pond snail
Scientific name
Galba truncatula
( OV Müller , 1774)

The small pond snail ( Galba truncatula ), also known as liver fluke snail, is a species of snail from the family of mud snails (Lymnaeidae), which belongs to the suborder water pulmonate snails (Basommatophora). It is the only species of the genus Galba in Central Europe.

features

The housings are conical and relatively small; they measure 5 to 9 mm in height and 2 to 4 mm in width. However, there are also rare stunted shapes that are only 3 mm high and, very rarely, giant shapes that reach a case height of up to 15 mm. There are five to six whorls that increase regularly. They are separated by a deep seam and thus stepped off. The mouth is longitudinally oval and pointed at the top. It is less than half the height of the case. The edge of the mouth is broadly set back at the spindle, but the navel is open and deep. The shell is horn-colored and finely striped, the thickness of the shell varies considerably.

Geographical occurrence and habitat

The small marsh snail has a huge range that covers almost all of Europe (in northern Norway up to 71 ° latitude). It is also found in North Africa, Asia Minor and Siberia as far as Alaska, as well as in Iceland. In the meantime, it has also been abducted to other regions of the world and has become a problem there due to its function as a vector for fasciolosis . B. Argentina. In the vertical, the species occurs from the lowlands up to 2800 m above sea level (Switzerland). The small marsh snail lives amphibiously in the bank zone of small, plant-rich bodies of water and lakes z. Sometimes even in temporary bodies of water, ditches, swampy forests, damp meadows and on land under damp foliage. But it also occurs on areas with little vegetation and cultivation.

Way of life and reproduction

The species needs calcareous water (<0.3 ° d) and also tolerates relatively high pH values ​​(up to 9.6). Water temperatures over 25 ° cannot be tolerated in the long term, around 20 ° are optimal. They are active up to temperatures of 1.5 °. It is in suitable biotopes z. T. extremely often. In the literature there are numbers of up to 2000 animals per m 2 . It feeds on rotting leaves, especially grass and iris leaves, but also various algae, diatoms, pollen and also detritus. They rarely eat fresh plant material and very rarely carrion. The animals live up to a year at most, and up to 17 months under laboratory conditions. Up to three generations are formed each year. However, the number of generations is strongly dependent on the climate. After copulation, spawning balls with 12 to 20 eggs are deposited in the shallow water several times. The development time is strongly temperature dependent. It ranges from 12 to 15 days in the summer months to 40 days in the fall. The young that hatch in April / May are sexually mature in August / September and lay eggs again.

Vectors of disease

The small mud snail is the (main) intermediate host of the large liver fluke ( Fasciola hepatica ) in Central Europe, which can trigger fasciolosis in ruminants and humans. In other regions of the world, other species of pond snail also act as intermediate hosts.

Systematics

The species was first scientifically described in 1774 by Otto Friedrich Müller as Buccinum truncatulum . Type locality is Thangelstedt in Saxony. It is the type of the genus Galba Cabinet, 1803.

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literature

  • Ewald Frömming: Biology of the Central European freshwater snails. 313 pp., Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1956.
  • Peter Glöer: The animal world of Germany. Mollusca I Freshwater gastropods of Northern and Central Europe Key to identification, way of life, distribution. 2. rework. Ed., 327 pages, ConchBooks, Hackenheim 2002 ISBN 3-925919-60-0
  • Jürgen H. Jungbluth and Dietrich von Knorre: Common names of land and freshwater mollusks in Germany (Gastropoda et Bivalvia). Mollusca, 26 (1): 105-156, Dresden 2008 ISSN  1864-5127 PDF

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Maria Dolores Bargues, Robert L. Mera y Sierra, HG Gómez, P. Artigas and Santiago Mas-Coma: Ribosomal DNA ITS-1 sequencing of Galba truncatula (Gastropoda, Lymnaeidae) and its potential impact on fascioliasis transmission in Mendoza, Argentina. Animal Biodiversity and Conservation, 29 (2): 191-194, Barcelona 2006]
  2. ^ Vinai Kumar: Trematode Infections and Diseases of Man and Animals. 363 S., Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht 1999 ISBN 0-7923-5509-1

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