II. Biology of the Golden Apple Snail
a. Common names and Classification
The term ‘apple snail’ refers to species of the freshwater snail family Ampullariidae primarily in the genera Pila, which is native to Asia and Africa, and Pomacea, which is native to the New World. They are termed, because the shells of many species in these two genera are usually large and round and sometimes greenish in color. Numerous common names, in English as well as local languages, have been used for these species in both the pest related field and the local aquarium trade.
Table 1. Names used in referring Pomacea caniculata
Common names
Golden apple snail (GAS) the commonly used name in south-east Asia
Apple snail a general term for all ampullariids, but sometimes used more restrictively for the pest species
Mystery snail primarily in
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Table 1 is a selection of names that have been used in the pest related literature for the ‘golden apple snail’. New molecular genetic analysis has conducted and leading to at least two species of Pomacea that attributed to as ‘golden apple snails’. One of these is most likely P. canaliculata but the identity of the other is not yet certain. It is possible that this other species is P. maculata (Perry, 1810) of which P. gigas (Spix, 1827) and P. insularum (d’Orbigny, 1835), both names that have been used for the pests, may be junior synonyms. However, verification of the identity of this second species requires further research. There are a number of synonyms of both P. canaliculata and P. maculata, some of which have been used in the pest-related literature. It seems unlikely that P. lineata is one of the pest species. And although there is as yet no evidence for hybridization among the pest populations, this remains a possibility, which will increase the difficulty of providing a definitive species