This species is smaller in size than the similar Cipangopaludina chinensis and has less rounded whorls. This species can be distinguished from the other introduced viviparid Sinotaia guangdungensis (Kobelt, 1906) by the lack of dark spiral ribs.
Cipangopaludina japonica (Martens, 1861)
Common name: Japanese mystery snail
Class Gastropoda
Infraclass Caenogastropoda
Informal group Architaenioglossa
Order Viviparida
Superfamily Viviparioidea
Family Viviparidae
Subfamily: Bellamyinae
Genus: Cipangopaludina Hannibal, 1912 (Type species: Paludina malleata Reeve, 1863). Synonym: Lecythoconcha Annandale 1920.
Original name: Paludina japonica Martens, 1861. In Martens, C. A. von 1861. Malakologische Mittheilungen. Malakozoologische Blätter 7, 225-228.
Type locality: Japan
This species has cometimes been included in the genus Heterogen Annandale, 1921.
Found crawling on rocks, water plants and on sediment in pond bottoms. It is a filter feeder. Females are slightly larger than males when mature and live up to 8 years and carry 10–120 young. Young are generally born after water temperature rises to 15ºC or more (Jokinen 1992).
The Japanese mystery snail is a host to the nematode parasite Angiostrongylus cantonensis.
Native to Japan, Korea and Taiwan. Known in Australia only from outdoor ponds at Austral Watergardens at Cowan in Sydney.
This species is only known from outdoor ponds at Austral Watergardens at Cowan in Sydney. It has as far as is known not established in the wild but could do so easily.
Chung, P. R. & Jung, Y. (1999). Cipangopaludina chinensis malleata (Gastropoda: Viviparidae): A new second molluscan intermediate host of a human intestinal fluke Echinostoma cinetorchis (Trematoda: Echinostomatidae) in Korea. The Journal of parasitology 85: 963-964.
David, A. A. & Cote, S. C. (2019). Genetic evidence confirms the presence of the Japanese mystery snail, Cipangopaludina japonica (von Martens, 1861)(Caenogastropoda: Viviparidae) in northern New York. BioInvasions Records 8: 793-803.
Jokinen, E. H. (1992). The Freshwater Snails (Mollusca: Gastropoda) of New York State. The University of the State of New York, The State Education Department, The New York State Museum, Albany, New York 12230. 112 pp.
Nasu, K., Yokoyama, Y., Sun, Y., Suzuki-Matsubara, M., Teramoto, T., Moriyama, A., Kawase, M. & Kumazawa, Y. (2020). Mitochondrial genome of Cipangopaludina japonica (Gastropoda: Viviparidae) with a tRNA gene rearrangement. Mitochondrial DNA Part B 5: 1340-1341.
Ng, T.H., Tan, S.K., Wong, W.H., Meier, R., Chan, S-Y., Tan, H.H. and Yeo, D.C.J. 2016. Molluscs for Sale: Assessment of Freshwater Gastropods and Bivalves in the Ornamental Pet Trade. PLOS One. DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0161130.
Van Bocxlaer, B. & Strong, E. E. (2016). Anatomy, functional morphology, evolutionary ecology and systematics of the invasive gastropod Cipangopaludina japonica (Viviparidae: Bellamyinae). Contributions to Zoology 85: 235-263.
