''Cipangopaludina cathayensis'' is a species of large,

freshwater snail Freshwater snails are gastropod mollusks which live in fresh water. There are many different families. They are found throughout the world in various habitats, ranging from ephemeral pools to the largest lakes, and from small seeps and springs ...

with an operculum and a gill, an aquatic

gastropod The gastropods (), commonly known as snails and slugs, belong to a large taxonomic class of invertebrates within the phylum Mollusca called Gastropoda (). This class comprises snails and slugs from saltwater, from freshwater, and from land. T ...

mollusk in the family Viviparidae, the river snails.

Taxonomy

This species was described under the name ''Paludina catayensis'' by French Jesuit Pierre Marie Heude in 1890. Later reviewers treated the

specific name Specific name may refer to: * in Database management systems, a system-assigned name that is unique within a particular database In taxonomy, either of these two meanings, each with its own set of rules: * Specific name (botany), the two-part (bino ...

''catayensis'' as an

orthographic error In biology, within the science of scientific nomenclature, i.e. the naming of organisms, an orthographical variant (abbreviated orth. var.) in botany or an orthographic error in zoology, is a spelling mistake, typing mistake or writing mistake with ...

and changed the specific name to ''cathayensis''. There is high intraspecific variation of shells within the genus ''Cipangopaludina'', so Wilhelm Kobelt (1909) considered this taxon as a subspecies of ''

Vivipara chinensis The Chinese mystery snail, black snail, or trapdoor snail (''Cipangopaludina chinensis''), is a large freshwater snail with gills and an operculum, an aquatic gastropod mollusk in the family Viviparidae. The name "trapdoor snail" refers the ...

''. Later authors Yen (1943), Liu (1991) and Lu et al (2014) considered this taxon as a separate species.

Distribution

The species has a wide distribution throughout central and southeastern

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

, occurring in East China (provinces

Shandong Shandong ( , ; ; alternately romanized as Shantung) is a coastal province of the People's Republic of China and is part of the East China region. Shandong has played a major role in Chinese history since the beginning of Chinese civilizati ...

, Anhui, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Jiangxi), Northeast China ( Jilin), North China (

Shanxi Shanxi (; ; formerly romanised as Shansi) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China and is part of the North China region. The capital and largest city of the province is Taiyuan, while its next most populated prefecture-lev ...

, Hebei) and Central China ( Henan, Hubei, Hunan).

Description

The width of the shell is 24.3–50.5 mm. The height of the shell is 27.7–58.5 mm. The shell has from five to six whorls. The apex is pointed. ''C. cathayensis'' has gills and an operculum. The kidney is triple-shaped. The diploid chromosome number of ''C. cathayensis'' is 2n=18. The complete mitochondrial genome of ''Cipangopaludina cathayensis'' is known since 2014. Its length is 17,157 bp.Yang H., Zhang J. E., Luo H., Luo M., Guo J., Deng Z. & Zhao B. (2014). "The complete mitochondrial genome of the mudsnail ''Cipangopaludina cathayensis'' (Gastropoda: Viviparidae)". ''Mitochondrial DNA: The Journal of DNA Mapping, Sequencing, and Analysis '': 1–3. .

Ecology

It inhabits lakes, reservoirs and ponds, as well as grassy paddies, where it clings to aquatic plants. Each gravid female carries more than 60 embryos inside her. The shell of embryo has three whorls. The pollutant removal in constructed wetlands with these snails was better, that in constructed wetland without them. Parasites of ''Cipangopaludina cathayensis'' include trematode '' Aspidogaster conchicola''.

Human use

It is used as human food and in the preparation of medicines, and as feed for fish, poultry and livestock. It is also used as a fertilizer.

References

External links

{{Taxonbar, from=Q24551054 Viviparidae Gastropods described in 1890 Taxa named by Pierre Marie Heude