Pila (gastropod)

. Pila is a genus of large freshwater snails with an operculum, African and Asian apple snails, aquatic gastropod mollusks in the family Ampullariidae, the apple snails.

Contents 1 Distribution 2 Species 3 Human use 4 References 5 External links

Distribution
Distribution of the genus Pila include Africa, Madagascar, southern Asia and Indo-Pacific islands.[3]

Species
Species within the genus Pila include:

subgenus Pila Pila africana (v. Martens, 1886)[2][3] Pila ampullacea (Linnaeus, 1758) - type species[2][3] Pila brohardi (Granger, 1892)[2] Pila cecillei (Philipi, 1848)[2][3] Pila conica (Gray, 1828)[2] Pila globosa (Swainson, 1822)[2] Pila occidentalis (Mousson, 1887)[2][3] Pila ovata (Olivier, 1804)[2][3] Pila pesmei (Morelet, 1889)[2] Pila polita (Deshayes, 1830)[2] Pila saxea (Reeve, 1856)[2] Pila scutata (Housson, 1848)[2] Pila speciosa Philippi, 1849[2][3] Pila virens (Lamarck)[2] Pila wernei (Philipi, 1851)[2][3]

subgenus Turbinicola Annandale & Prashad, 1921[4] Pila aperta (Prashad, 1925)[2] Pila (Turbinicola) saxea (Annandale & Prashad, 1921)[2]

Human use
The shell of Pila sp. is used in traditional ethnomedicine for weakness by Saharia people in Rajasthan, India.[5]

Pila ampullacea and Pila pesmei are some of the rice field snail species traditionally eaten in Thailand that have been displaced by the invasive Golden Apple Snail, Pomacea canaliculata.[6]