Shell elongate with a large aperture and pointed spire. Shell has fine spiral threads that are no seen in other lymnaeids in Australia. Animal has fleshy broad triangular tentacles and may be black to pale grey in colour.
Pseudosuccinea columella (Say,1817)
Common name: Striated pond snail
Class Gastropoda
Infraclass Heterobranchia
Megaorder Hygrophila
Order Lymnaeida
Superfamily Lymnoidea
Family Lymnaeidae
Genus Pseudosuccinea Baker, 1908 (Type species: Lymnaea columella Say, 1817).
Original name: Lymnaea columella Say, 1817. In Say, T. (1817). Descriptions of seven species of American fresh water and land shells, not noticed in the systems. Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 1: 13-16.
Type locality: USA
Lymnaeid taxonomy is in urgent need of a comprehensive review.
Amongst water weeds and similar substrate in ponds, sluggish rives and streams etc. Sometimes common. Feeds on algae and detritus. Egg mass a crescent-shaped jelly strip containing many small eggs. Development direct.
Mainly (but not exclusively) in coastal drainages in agricultural and urban areas.
Introduced from North America to southern Western Australia, New South Wales, Tasmania and Victoria - mainly (but not exclusively) in coastal drainages in agricultural and urban areas. Also introduced to New Zealand and many other parts of the world.
This species is more elongate than the other species found in Australia (other than L. stagnalis) and differs from all the other species in the shell having fine spiral threads.
Like Austropeplea spp. this species is a host of Liver Fluke (Fasciola hepatica), a parasite that infects stock and sometimes humans.
Beesley, P. L., Ross, G. J. B. & Wells, A., Eds. (1998). Mollusca: The Southern Synthesis. Parts A & B. Melbourne, CSIRO Publishing.
Boray, J. C. (1978). The potential impact of exotic Lymnaea spp. on fascioliasis in Australasia. Veterinary Parasitology 4: 127-141.
Boray, J. C., Fraser, G. C., Williams, J. D. & Wilson, J. M. (1985). The occurrence of the snail Lymnaea columella on grazing areas in New South Wales and studies on its susceptibility to Fasciola hepatica. Australian Veterinary Journal 62: 4-6.
Campbell, N. J. (1977). Identifying liver fluke snails. Agricultural Gazette of New South Wales 88: 24-26.
Hubendick, B. (1951). Recent Lymnaeidae: their variation, morphology, taxonomy, nomenclature and distribution. Kongliga Svenska Vetenskapsakademiens Handlingar 3: 1-223.
Kershaw, R. C. (1975). Tasmanian aquatic non-marine Mollusca. Part 1. Lymnaea. Tasmanian Naturalist 40: 1-4.
Kershaw, R. C. (1991). Snail and Slug Pests of Tasmania, Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery.
Ponder, W. F. (1975). The occurrence of Lymnaea (Pseudosuccinea) columella, an intermediate host of Fasciola hepatica, in Australia. Australian Veterinary Journal 51: 494-495.
Shea, M. (1995). Freshwater molluscs of Sydney. Australian Shell News 88: 4-6.
Smith, B. J. & Kershaw, R. C. (1979). Field guide to the non-marine Molluscs of South-eastern Australia. Canberra, A.N.U. Press.
Vinarski, M. V., Clewing, C. & Albrecht, C. (2019). Lymnaeidae Rafinesque, 1815. Pp. 158-162 in C. Lydeard & Cummings, K. S. Freshwater Mollusks of the World: a Distribution Atlas. Baltimore, John Hopkins University Press.
