Bulinus forskalii

Bulinus forskalii
File:Bulinus forskalii shell.png
an apertural view of the shell of Bulinus forskalii
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Mollusca
Class:	Gastropoda
(unranked):	clade Heterobranchia clade Euthyneura clade Panpulmonata clade Hygrophila
Superfamily:	Planorboidea
Family:	Planorbidae
Subfamily:	Bulininae
Tribe:	Bulinini
Genus:	Bulinus
Species:	B. forskalii
Binomial name
Bulinus forskalii (Ehrenberg, 1831)
Synonyms
Isidora forskalii Ehrenberg, 1831

Bulinus forskalii is a species of a tropical freshwater snail with a sinistral shell, an aquatic gastropod mollusk in the family Planorbidae, the ramshorn snails and their allies.

Distribution

Bulinus forskalii is an afrotropical species and occur in number of countries in Africa:

• Northern Africa: only in Egypt and Sudan.
• Western Africa: Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo.
• Eastern Africa: Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Somalia, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
• Central Africa: Angola, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon. An extreme variant of Bulinus forskalii lives also on São Tomé Island.
• Southern Africa: South Africa and Swaziland.

It has been recently introduced to Madagascar.

Its presence is uncertain in Mauritania, Nigeria and in Sierra Leone.

Ecology

Its natural habitat are lake margins, swamps, marshes and wetland areas. It lives in all types of freshwater bodies and it has been found mainly in dams and brooks in South Africa. The substratum is often muddy.

Bulinus forskalii is a hermaphroditic species. Self-fertilization can occur.

Parasites of Bulinus forskalii include:

• as intermediate host for Schistosoma guineensis
• as intermediate host for Schistosoma intercalatum
• as intermediate host for Schistosoma haematobium - experimental infection in Niger, but incompatible in South Africa
• as intermediate host for Gastrodiscus aegyptiacus, that causes gastrodiscosis in horses
• three species of paramphistomes (superfamily Paramphistomoidea)

It has been found incompatible with Schistosoma mattheei in South Africa.

External links

• Appleton C., Ghamizi M., Jørgensen A., Kristensen T. K., Ngereza C., Stensgaard A-S. & Van Damme D. (2009). Bulinus forskalii. In: IUCN 2010. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2010.4. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloaded on 7 May 2011.
• (French) Sarr A., Kinzelbach R. & Diouf M. (2011, in press). "Diversité spécifique et écologie des mollusques continenatux de la basse vallée du Ferlo (Sénégal). [Specific diversity and ecology of continental molluscs from the Lower Ferlo Valley (Senegal)]". MalaCo 7: 8 pp. PDF.
• Brown D. S. (1991). "Freshwater snails of São Tomé, with special reference to Bulinus forskalii (Ehrenberg), host of Schistosoma intercalatum". Hydrobiologia 209(2): 141-153. doi:10.1007/BF00006926.