Oncomelania hupensis is a species of very small tropical freshwater snail, an aquatic gastropod mollusk in the family Pomatiopsidae.<!-- Oncomelania hupensis is distantly related to the marine periwinkle, and more closely related to the small marine snails of the family Rissoidae.-->

Distribution

Oncomelania hupensis has been found in China, Taiwan, and also in Japan, the Philippines, and on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi. It is the most widely distributed subspecies of Oncomelania hupensis and lives primarily at low altitude but a few populations live in hilly areas in the drainage area of the Yangtze River in mainland China. It has varix, no matter whether the shell is smooth or ribbed, but most populations have ribbed-shell. Oncomelania hupensis hupensis has the same shell growth allometry as Oncomelania hupensis robertsoni but has a longer shell on average.

  • Oncomelania hupensis iriomotensis Fukuda & Sawada in Sawada et al., 2026—in Iriomote Island, Okinawa
  • Oncomelania hupensis lindoensis (Davis & Carney, 1973)—in Sulawesi,
  • Oncomelania hupensis quadrasi (Möllendorff, 1895)—in Philippines

Genetic confirmation of these four Chinese subspecies: Based on shell form, biogeographical and allozyme data, Davis et al. (1995) distinguished 3 subspecies of the Oncomelania hupensis in mainland China. separated the Oncomelania hupensis guangxiensis out from Oncomelania hupensis tangi based on allozymes and amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP), which was verified recently by Li et al. with internal transcribed spacer (ITS) and 16S fragments.

Genetics

It is believed that continuous control efforts, such as routine molluscicides in China, which have been used to control snails for about fifty years, might have imposed some effect on population genetics of these snails.

Habitat

thumb|Photo of habitat of rice [[paddy field (in dry season). It is inhabited by Oncomelania hupensis nosophora, which is a seasonally amphibious species.]]

It is seasonally amphibious species which lives in lakes and on marshy ground. which causes schistosomiasis endemic in the Far East, and especially in mainland China. Oncomelania hupensis largely determines the parasite's geographical range.

References

This article incorporates CC-BY-2.5 text from references.

Further reading

  • Shi, C. H., T. Wilke, G. M. Davis, M. Y. Xia & C. P. Qiu. 2002. Population genetics, microphylogeography, ecology and susceptibility to schistosome infection of Chinese Oncomelania hupensis hupensis (Gastropoda: Rissooidea: Pomatiopsidae) in the Miao River System. Malacologia 44:2333–347.
  • Tang C.-T., Lu M.-K., Guo Y., Wang Y.-N., Peng J.-Y., Wu W.-B., Li W.-H., Weimer B. C. & Chen D. (2009). "Development of Larval Schistosoma japonicum Blocked in Oncomelania hupensis by Pre-Infection with Larval Exorchis Sp.". Journal of Parasitology 95(6): 1321–1325. .
  • Wilke, T., G. M. Davis, D. C. Qiu & R. C. Speak. 2006. Extreme mitochondrial sequence diversity in the intermediate schistosomiasis host Oncomelania hupensis robertsoni: another case of ancestral polymorphism. Malacologia 48:1–2143–157.
  • Yang, Guo-Jing1; Utzinger, Jürg; Sun, Le-Ping; Hong, Qing-Biao; Vounatsou, Penelope; Tanner, Marcel; Zhou, Xiao-Nong 2007.Effect of temperature on the development of Schistosoma japonicum within Oncomelania hupensis, and hibernation of O. hupensis. Parasitology Research, Volume 100, Number 4, March 2007, pp.&nbsp;695–700(6). abstract
  • Zhou, Y. B., Q. W. Jiang, G. M. Zhao & J. G. Wei. 2005. Analysis of morphological variation within Oncomelania hupensis population. Chinese Journal of Zoology 40:90–97.