Melanoides tuberculata (O.F. Müller, 1774 )

Rapalai, Boikhutso Lerato, 2024, An annotated checklist of molluscs recorded from Botswana, Indago: Investigating nature and humanity in Africa (Oxford, England) 41 (10), pp. 15-44 : 23

20. Melanoides tuberculata (O.F. Müller, 1774)

Distribution and year: Lake Ngami [SAMC2617, SAMC1617] 1880 ( Connolly 1912; 1939; GBIF 2023 b); “Botletle” (Boteti) River N/A ( Connolly 1912; 1939); “Makarrikarri” (Makgadikgadi) Pan N/A ( Connolly 1912; 1939), 2016, 2017, 2019 ( GBIF 2023 b).

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

Habitat: Freshwater.

Notes: The native range of this species is speculated to be subtropical and tropical Africa (excluding West Africa), Indo-Pacific region, south Asia as well as the Arabic region ( Brown 1994). The species has a global distribution due to introductions into various parts of the world ( Albrecht et al. 2018 f). Common in waterbodies such as rivers, lakes and dams, and capable of surviving higher salinity levels ( Appleton & Miranda 2015).

Type locality: Coromandel Coast , south-eastern India ( MÜller 1774) .

Sources: Connolly (1912: 264, as Melania tuberculata , also as a [sub]fossil record; 1939: 566–567); van Bruggen (1966 a: 109), Brown & Kristensen (1989: 19); Appleton & Miranda (2015: 128); GBIF (2023 b).

Conservation status: Least Concern.