Physella acuta (Draparnaud, 1805)

Rogers, D. Christopher & Cruz-Rivera, Edwin, 2021, A preliminary survey of the inland aquatic macroinvertebrate biodiversity of St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands, Journal of Natural History 55 (13 - 14), pp. 799-850 : 807

Physella acuta (Draparnaud, 1805)

The second globally invasive snail species, P. acuta is native to the Nearctic bioregion, but has been spread through aquaculture, ornamental aquatic plants and the aquarium trade over much of the world. We found it commonly on St . Thomas in ornamental fishponds at private residences, a ghut near a plant nursery, in artificial impoundments, and ditches ( Crown Bay ditch), and in highly polluted waters associated with ghuts . It is common throughout the Caribbean Islands ( Harry and Hubendick 1964) .

Planorbidae

Three genera of Planorbids were encountered in our surveys. This family is medically important as some species are intermediate hosts for human parasites ( Barbosa 1995). Plesiophysa hubendicki (Richards and Ferguson, 1962) is only known from Puerto Rico. Biomphalaria glabrata (Say, 1818) , the key intermediate host of the human parasitic blood fluke Schistosoma mansoni Sambon, 1907 (Platyhelminthes: Trematoda), is widespread in the Neotropics and reported from the Lesser Antilles ( Hewitt and Willingham 2019). The congeneric B. albicans (Pfeiffer, 1848) has been reported from all the Greater and most of the Lesser Antilles as well ( Harry and Hubendick 1964). Neither of these species were encountered in our surveys, which agrees with the historical absence of schistosomiasis for the USVI territory ( Hewitt and Willingham 2019). The genus Drepanotrema has five species reported for Puerto Rico, St. Thomas, and St. Croix ( Ferguson and Richards 1963; Harry and Hubendick 1964; Muchmore 1993), but we did not encounter it is our surveys. Drepanotrema is in great need of revision, and the species are not reliably separated by morphology.