Bulinus tropicus ( Krauss, 1848 )

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 : 24

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.