22. Bulinus africanus (Krauss, 1848)

Distribution and year: Okavango Delta N/A (Appleton & Miranda 2015); Linyanti River, Kazungula [NHMUK:ecatalogue:2445293] 1956 (GBIF 2023 b).

Geographic range: Botswana, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

Habitat: Freshwater.

Notes: This species is widely distributed from Southern to Eastern Africa and occurs mostly in permanent waterbodies such as rivers, streams and dams (Brown 1994); it is capable of aestivating for long periods (Appleton & Miranda 2015). This species is an intermediate host of parasites causing bilharzia in humans (Appleton & Miranda 2015) and schistosomiasis in both domesticated and wild bovines (Brown 1994).

Type locality: “Port Natal” ( Durban), KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa (Krauss 1848) .

Sources: Brown (1994: 329); Appleton & Miranda (2015: 130); GBIF (2023 b).

Conservation status: Least Concern.