Lanistes

Lanistes is a genus of freshwater snails which have a gill and an operculum, aquatic gastropod mollusks in the family Ampullariidae, the apple snails. [7]

Contents 1 Distribution 2 Description 3 Species 4 References 5 External links

Distribution
The distribution of the genus Lanistes includes Africa and Madagascar.[3]

Description
Lanistes has a unique anatomy among the Ampullariidae: it has a "hyperstrophic" sinistral shell.[8] This means that the body of the snail is dextral (as in all other ampullariids), but the shell appears to be sinistral.[8] However the sinistral appearance stems from the fact that the rotation of the shell as it grows is in an upward direction rather than the usual downward direction.[8]

Species
Three[3] subgenera have been recognized, based on shell differences: Lanistes sensu stricto, Meladomus and Leroya. These subgenera are not used in recent works.[3]

Extant species within the genus Lanistes include: Lanistes alexandri (Bourguignat, 1889)[3] Lanistes ambiguus Martens, 1866 Lanistes bernardianus (Morelet, 1860) Lanistes beseneckeri Schütt in Schütt & Besenecker, 1973 † Lanistes bicarinatus Germain, 1907[3] Lanistes bloyeti (Bourguignat, 1889) Lanistes carinatus (Olivier, 1804) Lanistes chaperi (Kobelt, 1912) Lanistes carinatus (Olivier, 1804) - type species[2][3] Lanistes ciliatus Martens, 1878[2][3] Lanistes congicus O. Boettger, 1891[2][3] Lanistes deguerryanus (Bourguignat, 1889) Lanistes ellipticus Martens, 1866[2][3] Lanistes farleri Craven, 1880[2][3] Lanistes fultoni (Kobelt, 1912) Lanistes grasseti (Morelet, 1863)[3] Lanistes graueri Thiele, 1911[2][3] Lanistes intortus Martens, 1877[2][3] Lanistes jouberti (Bourguignat, 1888) Lanistes letourneuxi (Bourguignat, 1879) Lanistes libycus (Morelet, 1848)[2][3] Lanistes libycus var. albersi Lanistes libycus form bernardianus[3] or as Lanistes bernardianus (Morelet, 1860)[2]

Lanistes magnus Furtado, 1886 Lanistes nasutus Mandahl-Barth, 1972[2][3] Lanistes neavei Melvill & Standen, 1907[2][3] Lanistes neritoides Brown & Berthold, 1990[2][3] Lanistes nitidissimus (Bourguignat, 1889) Lanistes nsendweensis (Dupuis & Putzeys, 1901)[3] Lanistes nyassanus Dohrn, 1865[3] Lanistes ovatus (Olivier, 1804) Lanistes ovum Peters in Troschel, 1845[3] - synonyms: Lanistes magnus Furtado; Lanistes olivaceus (Sowerby); Lanistes procerus; Lanistes elatior Martens, 1866; Lanistes ovum bangweolicus Haas, 1936; Lanistes connollyi Pain, 1954[3] Lanistes ovum adansoni;[citation needed] Lanistes olivaceus var. ambiguus[citation needed] Lanistes palustris (Morelet, 1864) Lanistes pfeifferi (Bourguignat, 1879) Lanistes pilsbryi Walker, 1925 Lanistes pseudoceratodes (Wenz, 1928)[2] Lanistes purpureus (Jonas, 1839)[2][3] Lanistes solidus Smith, 1877[2][3] Lanistes stuhlmanni Martens, 1897[2][3] Lanistes varicus (Müller, 1774) - synonyms: Lanistes adansoni Kobelt, 1911; Lanistes millestriatus Pilsbry & Bequaert, 1927[3]

Fossil species within the genus Lanistes include: † Lanistes asellus van Damme & Pickford, 1995[4] † Lanistes bishopi Gautier[4] † Lanistes gautieri van Damme & Pickford, 1995[4] † Lanistes gigas van Damme & Pickford, 1995[4] † Lanistes hadotoi van Damme & Pickford, 1995[4] † Lanistes heynderycxi van Damme & Pickford, 1995[4] † Lanistes nkondoensis van Damme & Pickford, 1995[4] † Lanistes olukaensis[4] † Lanistes senuti van Damme & Pickford, 1995[4] † Lanistes trochiformis van Damme & Pickford, 1995[4]