Lissachatina fulica ( Bowdich, 1822 )

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 : 34

4. Lissachatina fulica ( Bowdich, 1822)

Distribution and year: 90 miles south of Nata, near Thalia village 1969 ( GBIF 2023 b).

Native range: The coastal regions of East Africa ( Fontanilla 2010), southern limit possibly being the Zambezi River ( Herbert 2010).

Extent of invasion: The species became widely spread across the Indian ocean islands such as Madagascar and Mauritius during the 1800s ( Fontanilla 2010). It later spread to India, Sri Lanka, Asia and into several Pacific islands, and gained ground in Europe and North America (Raut & Barker 2002).

Habitat: Terrestrial.

Notes: Introduction of the species to other regions of the world is presumed to be more deliberate than accidental (Raut & Barker 2002). This rapidly invading species, which covers a wide range expansion within a short period of time ( Herbert 2010), acts as an intermediate host of the rat lungworm Angiostrongylus cantonensis that causes human eosinophilic meningitis ( Fontanilla 2010), and is also infamously known as a crop pest in regions such as Ghana and mainland Kenya (Raut & Barker 2002). Lissachatina fulica can easily be mistaken for the indigenous L. immaculata (see Herbert 2010).

Type locality: Unknown ( Bowdich 1822).

Source: GBIF (2023).