Biomphalaria
Biomphalaria is a genus of air-breathing freshwater snails, aquatic pulmonates belonging to the family Planorbidae, the ram's horn snails and their allies. Biomphalaria is the type genus of the tribe Biomphalariini. Both Planorbis and Taphius are synonyms for Biomphalaria. The shell of this species, like all planorbids is left coiling (sinistral), but is carried upside down and thus appears to be right coiling (dextral). Species There are a suspected 35 extant species in the genus Biomphalaria in total (21 American species and 14 Old World species). However, there are a large number of invalid taxa within the Biomphalaria literature, which is likely the result of several (if not all) species of Biomphalaria being subject to various sources of intraspecific variation such as ecophenotypic variation and indeterminate shell growth. This intraspecific variation can make two individuals of the same species appear as two taxonomically distinct entities when identified using only morphological identification methods. New World (South American) species include: Biomphalaria amazonica (Paraense, 1966) Biomphalaria andecola (d'Orbigny, 1835) Biomphalaria cousini (Paraense, 1966) Biomphalaria edisoni (Estrada, Velásquez, Caldeira, Bejarano, Rojas & Carvalho, 2006) Biomphalaria glabrata (Say, 1818) Biomphalaria havanensis (L. Pfeiffer, 1839) Biomphalaria helophila (d'Orbigny, 1835) Biomphalaria intermedia (Paraense & Deslandes, 1962) Biomphalaria