Freshwater Molluscan Shells Thiaridae The general range of the thiaridae is circum-tropical, and many of the species are extremely widespread. Their dispersal is facilitated by the fact that all are parthenogenic females. Melanoides tuberculata (Müller 1774), similar to M. maculata, below, is a common aquarium snail. Among the genera are the following; Thiara; East Africa to Polynesia, some species also very wide ranging. Melanoides; Southern Europe, Africa Brotia; Southeast Asia Terebia; south Asia, Oceania Sermyla; southeast Asia, Oceania Sermylasma; Australia Pseudopotamis; Australia Melanatria; Madagascar Fijidoma; Fiji Islands Tylomelania; Celebes Cubaedomus; Cuba Aylacostoma; Central and South America Doryssa; South America (see Pleuroceridae) Hemisinus; South America Australia     Melanoides denisoniensis (Brot, 1877), Queensland, Australia   Thiara balonnensis (Conrad, 1850), Queensland, Australia.   Syrmylasma venustula (Brot, 1877), Queensland, Australia Southeast Asia     Paracrostoma pseudosulcospira armata (Brandt, 1968)   Brotia pagodula (Gould, 1847)   Brotia henriettae (Gray, 1834) An internet search for Brotia pagodula and B. henriettae yields a number of German aquariist sites. It appears that there is a substantial trade in several Southeast Asian species to supply that market as of 2008. Shell characteristics suggest the specimens pictured here were part of that trade, and that they may have matured in their natural environment prior to being collected and shipped off. http://www.allesumdieschneck.de/html/brotia_pagodula_english.html (accessed Sept. 2008) indicates that Brotia pagodula requires constantly moving highly oxygenated water and that most die after 6 months in an aquarium. If they are not bred in captivity it is probably best to avoid them.       Two specimens obtained from diferent sources, identified as Brotia costula (Rafinesque, 1833), (left), and Brotia costulata (Rafinesque, 1833), (right), from Malaysia, and Bangladesh, respectively. Both of these morphologies fall within the very variable subspecies Brotia (Brotia) costula costula.   Brotia insolita (Brot, 1868) Cambodian rivers. Brandt (1974) lists ten species and four additional subspecies within the genus Brotia. Geoff Macaulay provides the following information regarding Brotia costula. Brotia (Brotia) costula (Rafinesque, l833), is a large and widespread snail in the family Thiaridae (?) [Banarescu does not mention Brotia in his discussion of either Thiaridae or Pleuroceridae.] The best description I have is in Archiv fur Molluskenkunde 105, I-IV, 1-423, The Non Marine Aquatic Mollusca of Thailand by Rolf A. Brandt (1974). To briefly summarise this - This is an extremely variable species and also the largest Brotia. There are a great many synonyms and a wide distribution from North India, Burma, South China, continental South East Asia to Sumatra, Java and Borneo. It occupies many different habitats. Brandt recognises 3 races: Brotia costula costula (Rafinesque 1833), B. c varicosa (Troschel 1837) and B. c peninsularis Brandt l974. Synonyms for costula costula include variabilis Benson, herculea Gould, indica Souleyet, corrugata Reeve, jullieni Deshayes, and peguensis Morelet. Also see Köhler and Glaubrecht's 2006 paper on the systematics of Brotia, placing the genus in the family Pachychilidae: http://download.naturkundemuseum-berlin.de/frank.koehler/Brotia_2006.pdf Indo-Pacific     Thiara winteri Von Dem Busch, 1842, Philippines, x2   Thiara, unknown sp., Philippines, x2.   Thiara, unknown sp., Philippines. Small shell, x4. Adult, front and back, and immature individuals, more magnified. Unknown Thiara species, probably T. amarula, T. terpischore, or T. macrospira. Photos and ID's provided by Don Barclay.   Melanoides torulosa (Bruguiere, 1789) Philippines Unknown species, Philippines       Unknown Melanoides sp. Philippines   Melanoides maculata (Bruguiere, 1789), Philippines.   Melanoides granifera, (Lamarck, 1822) Philippines.   Thiara cancellata, (Roeding, 1798) cleaned with bleach, from the Philippines. Projections are shelly. Another presumptive Thiara cancellata(?) Java rivers. The thin projections are periostracal (soft organic) material.   South America     Hemisinus eduardsi (Lea, 1852), Brazil, slightly enlarged.   Aylacostoma pulcher (Reeve, 1860), Brazil, slightly enlarged.   Aylacostoma francana (Ihering, 1909). Sao Paulo State, Brazil. x3. Africa Pilsbry and Bequaert (1927) list 23 species and 8 additional subspecies of Melanoides for the African continent outside Lake Nyassa. They include an additional list of 38 species (in several dubious genera) for that lake compiled from Bourguignat, but add "We do not care to add new name combinations for a host of merely mutational forms" They felt the task of determining the actual number of species in Lake Nyassa, taking into account variation typical within species, was outside the scope of their work. Below is a small sample of those figured from the rest of the continent.   Left to right: Melanoides anomala (Dautzenberg and Germain, 1914) 8 mm M.liebrechtsi (Dautzenberg, 1901) 24 mm. M. bavayi (Dautzenberg and Germain, 1919) ? mm M. nsendweensis consobrina (Dupuis and Putzeys 1900) 13.5 m   [Home Page] | [Site Map]