''Sinotaia quadrata'' is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

of a

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 a

gill A gill () is a respiratory organ that many aquatic organisms use to extract dissolved oxygen from water and to excrete carbon dioxide. The gills of some species, such as hermit crabs, have adapted to allow respiration on land provided they are ...

and an operculum, 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 Mollusca is the second-largest phylum of invertebrate animals after the Arthropoda, the members of which are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 85,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized. The number of fossil species is e ...

in the family

Viviparidae Viviparidae, sometimes known as the river snails or mystery snails, are a family of large operculate freshwater snails, aquatic gastropod mollusks. This family is classified in the informal group Architaenioglossa according to the taxonomy of ...

Subspecies

Subspecies within this species include: * ''Sinotaia quadrata quadrata'' * ''Sinotaia quadrata histrica'' (

Gould Gould may refer to: People * Gould (name), a surname Places United States * Gould, Arkansas, a city * Gould, Colorado, an unincorporated community * Gould, Ohio, an unincorporated community * Gould, Oklahoma, a town * Gould, West Virginia, a ...

, 1859) or as a separate species '' Sinotaia histrica'' * ''Viviparus quadratus disparis'' * ''Viviparus quadratus grahami'' Chen, 1945

Distribution

This species is found in *

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

* Northeast

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...

（

Isan Northeast Thailand or Isan (Isan/ th, อีสาน, ; lo, ອີສານ; also written as Isaan, Isarn, Issarn, Issan, Esan, or Esarn; from Pali ''īsānna'' or Sanskrit ईशान्य ''īśānya'' "northeast") consists of 20 provin ...

） *

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 ...

. * Italy (river Arno) * Argentina (Central Argentina; non-native) This species is also known from

Upper Pleistocene The Late Pleistocene is an unofficial age in the international geologic timescale in chronostratigraphy, also known as Upper Pleistocene from a stratigraphic perspective. It is intended to be the fourth division of the Pleistocene Epoch within ...

of China.

Ecology

Habitat

The habitat of ''Sinotaia quadrata'' are rivers and lakes. The pollution tolerance value is 6 (on scale 0–10; 0 is the best water quality, 10 is the worst water quality).

Feeding habits

''Sinotaia quadrata'' feeds on epiphytic

algae Algae (; singular alga ) is an informal term for a large and diverse group of photosynthetic eukaryotic organisms. It is a polyphyletic grouping that includes species from multiple distinct clades. Included organisms range from unicellular mic ...

. ''Sinotaia quadrata histrica'' snails predate also on eggs of

bluegill The bluegill (''Lepomis macrochirus''), sometimes referred to as "bream", "brim", "sunny", or "copper nose" as is common in Texas, is a species of North American freshwater fish, native to and commonly found in streams, rivers, lakes, ponds and ...

''Lepomis macrochirus''. Nakao H., Kawabata T., Fujita K., Nakai K. & Sawada H. (2006). "Predation on bluegill (''Lepomis macrochirus'') broods by native snails. '' Japanese Journal of Ichthyology'' 53(2): 167–173
PDF

Life cycle

''Sinotaia quadrata'' has strong

fecundity Fecundity is defined in two ways; in human demography, it is the potential for reproduction of a recorded population as opposed to a sole organism, while in population biology, it is considered similar to fertility, the natural capability to pr ...

Parasites

Parasites of ''Sinotaia quadrata'' (also of ''Bellamya quadrata lapillorum'' (Heude)) include trematode ''

Aspidogaster conchicola ''Aspidogaster conchicola'' is a trematode parasite of the Aspidogastrea subclass that commonly infects freshwater clams. It has not been well studied since it is of little economic or medical importance, but ''A. conchicola'' and its fellow asp ...

''.

Human use

''Sinotaia quadrata'' is common animal food used in

aquaculture Aquaculture (less commonly spelled aquiculture), also known as aquafarming, is the controlled cultivation ("farming") of aquatic organisms such as fish, crustaceans, mollusks, algae and other organisms of value such as aquatic plants (e.g. lot ...

to feed fish

black carp The black carp (''Mylopharyngodon piceus'') or Chinese black roach is a species of cyprinid freshwater fish and the sole extant species of the genus ''Mylopharyngodon''. It is native to lakes and rivers in East Asia, ranging from the Amur Basin ac ...

NACA 1989. Yu Shigang. '' Integrated fish farming in China '
''Chapter 3 POND FERTILIZATION AND FISH FEEDS. Pond Fertilization''
Integrated Fish Farming in China. NACA Technical Manual 7. A World Food Day Publication of the Network of Aquaculture Centres in Asia and the Pacific, Bangkok, Thailand. 278 pp.,accessed 22 September 2009. in China.Shan Jian 1985.''Integrated fish farming in China. Training manual.'

Network of Agriculture centres in Asia, Bangkok, Thailand. 371 pp. This species is also eaten by humans. In

, Thailand they are collected by hand or with a handnet from canals, swamps, ponds and flooded rice paddy fields during the rainy season. During the dry season, snails live under dried mud. Collectors use a

spade A spade is a tool primarily for digging consisting of a long handle and blade, typically with the blade narrower and flatter than the common shovel. Early spades were made of riven wood or of animal bones (often shoulder blades). After the a ...

to scrape the ground to find and catch them. Generally they are collected by both men and women. The snails are then cleaned and cooked in a

curry A curry is a dish with a sauce seasoned with spices, mainly associated with South Asian cuisine. In southern India, leaves from the curry tree may be included. There are many varieties of curry. The choice of spices for each dish in tradit ...

. They are also parboiled in salted water and eat together with green

papaya The papaya (, ), papaw, () or pawpaw () is the plant species ''Carica papaya'', one of the 21 accepted species in the genus ''Carica'' of the family Caricaceae. It was first domesticated in Mesoamerica, within modern-day southern Mexico and ...

salad.

References

This article incorporates CC-BY-2.0 text from reference.

External links

{{Taxonbar, from=Q7937918 Viviparidae Taxa named by William Henry Benson Gastropods described in 1842