The Apple Snail Pomacea Scalaris: A Puzzle With Many Missing Pieces

Abstract

Apple snails (family Ampullariidae) are large freshwatergastropods native to tropical and subtropical areas of theAmericas, Africa and Asia. Within this family, the genusPomacea stands out as the most diverse of the nine generapresently recognised. Several species in this genus,particularly Pomacea maculata and Pomacea canaliculata,have been introduced and established in many parts of theworld, including Asia, North America, Pacific islands, Africaand Europe, where they have become serious agricultural,environmental, and potential human health pests. These factshave produced a seemingly exponential surge of basic andapplied studies around the world, although the majority ofthem have focused on the two species above (Yao et al.,2023)