Ampullaria prunella

Cowie, Robert H., 2015, The recent apple snails of Africa and Asia (Mollusca: Gastropoda: Ampullariidae: Afropomus, Forbesopomus, Lanistes, Pila, Saulea): a nomenclatural and type catalogue. The apple snails of the Americas: addenda and corrigenda, Zootaxa 3940 (1), pp. 1-92 : 55

prunella

Ampullaria prunella Hupé, 1857 . Additional detail of type material — syntypes: MNHN 4620 (7 spms.); possible syntype: MNHN 23086. See Cowie & Thiengo (2003: 81).

Additional remarks. The localities given in the original description and on the syntypes label (see Cowie & Héros 2012 : 813), combined with the shell morphology, would place this species in Pomacea , a New World genus. However, there are four calcified operculae associated with the specimens, which would indicate that they are not New World ampullariids and which led Cowie & Thiengo to consider this an Old World species. Cowie & Héros (2012: 813) , after studying these specimens and comparing them with Hupé’s description, concluded that these were indeed probably the shells that Hupé was describing, which suggests that he was mistaken regarding their origin. However, there are other shells that are very similar to these types in the MNHN general collections also labelled as Ampullaria prunella from South America, but with no operculae. Tillier (1980: 16) suggested that these specimens represented an Asian or African species [of Pila ] that had been introduced but had since disappeared from French Guiana, but this suggestion warrants further research.