A highly polymorphic, tall-spired species that is able to tolerate a wide range of environmental conditions – both natural and man-made. Fresh and brackish waters in tropical SE Asia, Indo - Australasian archipelago into northern Australia. Has a thin elongated shell - usually narrower than Thiara balonnensis and without shouldered whorls. Light brown or cream in colour with darker flames and speckles.
Melanoides tuberculata (Müller, 1774)
Common name: Kangaroo snail
Class Gastropoda
Infraclass Caenogastropoda
Megaorder Cerithiimorpha
Order Cerithiida
Superfamily Cerithioidea
Family Thiaridae
Genus Melanoides Olivier, 1804 (Type species: Melanoides fasciolata Olivier, 1804, = Melanoides tuberculata (Müller,1774)).
Original name: Nerita tuberculata Müller,1774. In Müller, O .F. (1774). Vermium Terrestrium et Fluviatilium, seu Animalium Infusorium, Helminthicorum, et Testaceorum, non marinorum, Succincta Historia. Havniae &. Lipsiae: Heineck & Faber Vol. 2, i- xxvi, 1-214 pp.
Type locality: In littorae Coromandel (ie, India, Coromandel coast).
Synonyms: Melanoides fasciolata Oliver, 1804; Turritella turricula Link, 1807; Turritella tuberculata Link, 1807.
Females have a brood pouch in the head. Boray (1982) records this species as an intermediate host for Procerovum cheni, an intestinal parasite. Found in rivers, creeks, springs, dams, lakes, irrigation canals and tropical fish aquariums. Lives on sand and mud.
There are a few records of this invasive species from tropical Australia (Northern Territory, northern Western Australia, coastal Queensland) as well as northeast New South Wales.
The native distribution is subtropical and tropical northern Africa and southern Asia. It has been introduced to the USA, Cuba and several Caribbean nations, Brazil and Venezuela, Netherlands, New Zealand, and other places.
This invasive species is established in several parts of the world.
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