26. Bulinus tropicus (Krauss, 1848)

Distribution and year: remnant pools in flood-plain of Kwando River near Kongolo Bridge [SMWN76377] 1986 (Brown et al. 1992); “Gabarones” (Gaborone) (Brown 1994); Dobe 1965 (van Bruggen 1966 a); Lake Ngami N/A (Connolly 1912; 1939); south of Hardekol Drift, “Botletle” (Boteti) River (Connolly 1912; 1939); Okavango Delta [SMWN77018] 1996 (SMWN 2024); 2000 (Jansen van Rensburg 2001).

Geographic range: Algeria, Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

Habitat: Freshwater.

Notes: B. tropicus belongs to the tropicus / truncatus species complex (Brown et al. 1991). The species distribution ranges from Eastern Africa southwards (Brown et al. 1992). It occurs in small earth dams, residual pools and lakes, surviving both extreme hot and cold conditions (Brown 1994). The mollusc is an intermediate host for Schistosoma haematobium (Bilharz, 1852), which causes human urinary schistosomiasis (Albrecht et al. 2018 d).

Type locality: “Lepenula” ( Olifants) River, “Transvaal” (Mpumalanga Province), South Africa (Krauss 1848) .

Sources: Connolly (1912: 247, as Isidora parietalis; 1939: 504, as Bulinus parietalis, both also as fossils); van Bruggen (1966 a: 104); Brown et al. (1992: 34); Brown (1994: 275); Jansen van Rensburg (2001: 29).

Conservation status: Least Concern.