Knowra Freshwater snail Freshwater snail A gastropod mollusk that lives in freshwater, including species from several distinct evolutionary lineages. Many have coiled shells and use a muscular foot to move.
Gastropod : A mollusk in the largest class of mollusks, typically moving on a muscular foot and often bearing a shell. Freshwater snails are gastropods, but their freshwater adaptations evolved in multiple lineages.
Radular feeding : Feeding in which a mollusk scrapes or cuts food with its radula. Many freshwater snails graze biofilms by rasping surfaces with the radula.
Schistosomiasis : A parasitic disease caused by blood flukes of the genus Schistosoma. Several freshwater snail lineages serve as intermediate hosts for human-infecting schistosomes.
Apple snail : A common name for large freshwater snails in the family Ampullariidae. Apple snails include air-breathing species with distinctive reproductive and feeding adaptations.
Terrestrial snail : A gastropod mollusk adapted to live primarily on land. Both are snails, but terrestrial species face different challenges in respiration and water balance.
Mollusk : An invertebrate animal in the phylum Mollusca, a group that includes snails, clams, and cephalopods. The freshwater snail body plan derives from the broader molluscan organization.
Mantle cavity : A space between a mollusk’s mantle and body that houses respiratory organs or functions in gas exchange. Its structure determines whether a freshwater snail breathes with gills, air, or both.
Fascioliasis : A parasitic disease caused by liver flukes, principally Fasciola hepatica and Fasciola gigantica. Lymnaeid freshwater snails host larval stages of the liver flukes that cause this disease.
Ramshorn snail : A freshwater snail whose shell coils in a flat, planispiral shape resembling a ram’s horn. Ramshorn snails are familiar pulmonates that graze on algae and detritus.
Freshwater mussel : A bivalve mollusk that lives in freshwater, typically with two hinged shells. Freshwater mussels share habitats with snails but lack a single coiled shell and radula.
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