Small to large, oval to ear-shaped freshwater lymnaeid snails with a large aperture. The animal has large triangular tentacles.
Species of Radix have shells sculptured with fine axial lamellae and the prostate has a single large fold. Many species with a solid black band parallel to the mantle collar and there is a uterine appendix. Species of Radix have 17 pairs of chromosomes, compared with 16 pairs in Austropeplea and Bullastra and 18 pairs in Lymnaea and Pseudosuccinea.
Radix Montfort, 1810
Class Gastropoda
Infraclass Heterobranchia
Megaorder Hygrophila
Order Lymnaeida
Superfamily Lymnoidea
Family Lymnaeidae
Subfamily: Amphipepleinae
Genus Radix Montfort, 1810
Type species: Radix auriculatus Montfort, 1810.
Original reference: Montfort D. de (1810). Conchyliologie systématique, et classification méthodique des coquilles; offrant leurs figures, leur arrangement générique, leurs descriptions caractéristiques, leurs noms; ainsi que leur synonymie en plusieurs langues. Ouvrage destiné à faciliter l'étude des coquilles, ainsi que leur disposition dans les cabinets d'histoire naturelle. Coquilles univalves, non cloisonnées. Tome second. pp. [1-3], 1-676. Paris: Schoell.
Type locality: Europe.
Synonyms: Gulnaria Leach in Turton, 1831; Neritostoma Klein in H. & A. Adams, 1855; Auriculariana Servain, 1881.
Lymnaeid taxonomy is in urgent need of a comprehensive review.
On submerged water plants in ponds, swamps and poorly drained pasture, and along edges of streams, commonly on damp mud above water line. Biology similar to other lymnaeids. Feeds on algae and detritus. Egg mass a crescent-shaped jelly strip containing many small eggs. Development direct.
Species are found in Eurasia, North America, north Africa, South America, India and Asia, including Indonesia.
Introduced to many other parts of the world.
Like Austropeplea, this genus is a host of liver fluke (Fasciola hepatica), a parasite that infects livestock and sometimes humans. The genus is also known to host many parasites in Europe and Asia, including Fasciola gigantica, a parasite of cattle and sheep.
We treat two non-native species assigned to Radix in this resource but there are others that may be introduced and some have been intercepted by Australian Biosecurity officials. These include the species illustrated above.
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