Pablo R. Martín

• PhD
• Professor at Universidad Nacional del Sur

Apple snails (family Ampullariidae) are large freshwater gastropods native to tropical and subtropical areas of America, Africa and Asia. Within this family, the genus Pomacea stands out as the most diverse of the nine genera presently recognized. Several species in this genus, particularly Pomacea maculata and Pomacea canaliculata, have been intro...

Global records of the invasive freshwater apple snail Pomacea canaliculata (Lamarck, 1822) Figure 5. Timeline of the spread of P. canaliculata from its native area of distribution to all invaded regions worldwideuntil today. The invasion process is divided by decades, showing in red the cumulative invaded areas until 1980, 1990,2000, 2010 and 2020...

Pomacea canaliculata (Caenogastropoda: Ampullariidae) is a freshwater snail native to the lower Del Plata basin in South America. However, along with other species collectively known as “apple snails”, it has been introduced to many regions outside its natural range. In these areas, it has spread rapidly, causing extensive damage to aquatic crops a...

Biological invasions threaten biodiversity and cause severe ecological and socioeconomic impacts. Freshwater snails are very diverse and many became invasive or have the potential to do so. Studies on the relationship between bioecological traits and invasiveness are needed to prevent new invasions. The tolerance to environmental stressors of the n...

You are what you eat: is the apple snail Pomacea canaliculata a macrophytophage or a detritivore in its native range (Southern Pampas, Argentina)? Limnology Enzo Manara, Mara Anahí Maldonado & Pablo Rafael Martín. GECEMAC (Grupo de Ecología, Comportamiento y Evolución de Moluscos de Aguas Continentales), INBIOSUR (UNS-CONICET), San Juan 671, (8000)...

Herbivorous invaders promote changes in community structure and ecosystem functioning. The apple snail, Pomacea cana-liculata, is an invader with strong impacts on wetland vegetation and aquatic crops. While able to feed on diverse trophic resources using different feeding mechanisms it is usually regarded as a macrophytophage. However, studies sho...

Apple snails (family Ampullariidae), especially those belonging to the genus Pomacea, are usually seen as troublesome invaders and agricultural pests rather than as targets for conservation studies and projects. Pomacea americanista (Ihering, 1919) was first described as Ampullaria americanista for the Iguazú Falls (Argentina) and Encarnación (Para...

Biological invasions represent one of the major threats to biodiversity. The apple snail Pomacea canaliculata is a South American freshwater snail that was introduced in many regions around the world, becoming a successful invader. In this work, we provide an updated and accurate database of P. canaliculata records worldwide, test the realized nich...

Pomacea canaliculata is native to South America and has become a widely distributed agricultural and environmental pest in southern China. Previous studies have primarily focused on the tolerance of P. canaliculata to various environmental factors, and compared non-native invasive P. canaliculata with natives or non-invasive congeners. However, the...

Pomacea canaliculata es un caracol dulceacuícola invasor de origen sudamericano conocido como plaga de cultivos acuáticos y generador de cambios ecosistémicos en humedales naturales. Esto lo ha convertido en una especie modelo para estudios ecológicos. Sin embargo, aspectos fundamentales de su biología, como los factores que afectan su supervivenci...

Sediment represents both a habitat and a trophic resource for many aquatic organisms, commonly known as deposit feeders. One of the most important freshwater invaders around the world is the polyphagous and opportunistic apple snail Pomacea canaliculata, in which deposit feeding has not been reported. Our aims were to study the frequency of sedimen...

Aquatic macrophytes supply an important link in freshwater systems through their multiple functions and ecosystem services. However, invasive generalist herbivores threatened their diversity and abundance. Pomacea canaliculata, one species of invasive freshwater apple snail, shows generalist macrophyte tendencies. Information about its natural diet...

Caracol Chileno de Parchappe Chilina parchappii (d'Orbigny, 1835) Phylum Mollusca Clase Gastropoda Subclase Heterobranchia Superfamilia Chilinoidea Familia Chilinidae Género Chilina Descripción: Caracol dulceacuícola con concha alargada, de contorno oval, delgada y translúcida, con hasta cinco vueltas y 35 mm de largo. Espira alargada con ápice pun...

The study of diet and how a species obtains food is relevant to understand its role within natural environments. The apple snail Pomacea canaliculata is a freshwater dweller that primarily consumes aquatic macrophytes and detritus but that also incorporates resources of animal origin in its diet. Our aim was to investigate the ingestion of macroinv...

Melanoides tuberculata is a freshwater snail native to Old World tropical areas but has invaded tropical and subtropical regions around the world. In Argentina, populations established in natural environments were reported from northeastern tropical provinces. Here we report for the first time the presence of M. tuberculata in a geothermally warmed...

In most animal taxa, large mothers (or those with high nutritional status) produce large offspring, leading to a maternal size-offspring size correlation, that is, a positive correlation between maternal size and offspring size. Here, we used the natural variation in maternal size between three natural populations of Buccinanops deformis (a marine...

Sexual dimorphism has often been recorded in apple snails (Caenogastropoda Ampullariidae), but reports are concentrated in a few species, either invasive or with biocontrol potential, which sugests some taxonomic bias. To find out evolutionary and ecological correlates of sexual dimorphism it is necessary to detect and quantify it but also is impor...

Pomacea canaliculata is a freshwater snail native to southern South America. The aims of this work are to update its distribution in Argentina and to analyze through niche models whether the environmental conditions from its original distribution can anticipate its recently expanded range. Almost all records of P. canaliculata before 1958 (original...

The trophic ecology of the invasive apple snail Pomacea canaliculata was intensely investigated because of the impacts of its grazing on aquatic vegetation, including crops. However, this freshwater snail also gathers food from the water surface using a pedal funnel, a distinctive trophic behavior called pedal surface collecting. We investigated th...

Invasive freshwater molluscs have potential negative impacts on biodiversity, ecosystem functioning and human activities. A sampling program was conducted in five watercourses from SW Buenos Aires province to detect exotic species with invasive potential. Six species of exotic molluscs and six native ones were recorded. Two exotic species have incr...

Apple snails are large freshwater snails belonging to the family Ampullariidae that inhabit tropical to temperate areas. The South American apple snails Pomacea canaliculata and Pomacea maculata have been introduced to other continents where they have successfully established and spread. Our review aims to analyse the mechanisms of the impacts that...

Macroinvertebrates represent an important component of communities and trophic webs of freshwater ecosystems. Pomacea canaliculata (family Ampullariidae), an invasive apple snail native to the Pampas ecoregion, acts as a voracious grazer and plays a structuring role on submerged macrophytes that serve as food, habitat or foraging ground for many ma...

Pomacea canaliculata is a successful invader and also a competitor and predator of other snails and may play a key role in structuring freshwater snail communities both in its native and invaded range. In the present study we evaluated the contact and distant effects of P. canaliculata in its native range on exotic (Melanoides tuberculata and Physa...

Snails exhibit a primary left-right asymmetry that appears during the first cleavages of the eggs, and a secondary asymmetry, related to the coiling of the shell. Most species are constituted by either dextral or sinistral morphs (enantiomorphs) while individuals with reversed primary asymmetry are extremely rare. Freshwater snails of the family Am...

Sex differences in stress responses may be a key factor that determines population structure. Sex ratios of Pomacea canaliculata populations usually average 1:1 at birth, but are often female-biased for adults. Low temperatures and drought are the main abiotic stresses affecting reproductive dispersal and population development. Therefore, we inves...

Apple snails are renowned for their strong impacts on aquatic vegetation and ecosystem function in invaded regions but the existing knowledge on their role in aquatic ecosystems and communities in their native range is scarce. The variation in palatability of five submersed macrophytes, the preference of Pomacea canaliculata for them and the potent...

Correction to: Hydrobiologia https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-018-3815-5 Due to an unfortunate turn of events, the surname of the first author appeared incorrectly in the original publication as it should have read Manara. The original article has been corrected and the proper representation of the authors’ names and their affiliation is also listed...

High fecundity often contributes to successful invasives. In molluscs, this may be facilitated by the albumen gland-capsule gland complex, which in gastropods secretes the egg perivitelline fluid that nourishes and protects embryos. The biochemistry of the albumen gland-capsule gland complex and its relationship with fecundity remain largely unknow...

Temperature has a great influence on the life-history traits of freshwater snails. In this study we investigated the long term effects of a range of temperatures on shell morphology of the apple snail Pomacea canaliculata, a highly invasive species and an important pest of rice. Analysis of shells using geometric morphometrics showed that the main...

The Ampullariidae (apple snails) are freshwater snails of tropical and subtropical regions. Recent research has concentrated on a few species that are invasive or potential biocontrol agents, but the basic life history traits of most species remain unknown. One such poorly known species is Pomacea americanista, endemic to the Alto Paraná and Iguazú...

Esta nota pretende revisar la información sobre los caracoles dulceacuícolas que han atravesado, o están por atravesar, las fronteras de la Argentina y comentar algunos fenómenos biológicos y ecológicos que resultan de estos desplazamientos. De acuerdo con los estudios sobre la diversidad de caracoles dulceacuícolas de Rumi et al. (2006), Nuñez et...

Apple snails are regarded as invasive or potentially problematic species but some species may be under threat. Life tables are a useful tool to understand the growth potential of freshwater snail populations. Our aim was to estimate the demographic parameters of the Neotropical apple snail Asolene platae to allow a quantitative comparison with inva...

The behavior of invasive species under predation risk has been studied extensively, but their growth and reproductive responses have rarely been investigated. We conducted experiments with juveniles and adults of the invasive freshwater snail Pomacea canaliculata, and we observed changes in growth and reproduction in response to predation risk from...

Pomacea canaliculata is in many respects the best known species of apple snails (family Ampullariidae), although the available information is both fragmentary and geographically biased. Most studies in its non-native range have focused on applied aspects in managed or artificial wetlands in various countries in Southeast Asia. In its natural range...

Snail Kites (Rostrhamus sociabilis) feed almost exclusively on Apple Snails (Pomacea spp.). While field observations indicate they discard the noxious albumen gland (AG) when feeding on female snails, there is no information on the energy lost by this behavior, the gland composition, or if there are snail sex preferences associated. We addressed fo...

The Ampullariidae have attracted persistent scientific interest, although this has been mostly concentrated on a few invasive species. Pomacea americanista (Von Ihering, 1919) new combination is a neglected species as there has been no published information about its anatomy and natural history since its description in 1919. Our aim was to describe...

In order to set priorities in management of costly and ecosystem damaging species, policy makers and managers need accurate predictions not only about where a specific invader may establish but also about its potential abundance at different geographical scales. This is because density or biomass per unit area of an invasive species is a key predic...

Asolene platae (Ampullariidae) is a dioecious freshwater snail with subaquatic gelatinous egg masses that dwells in the Río de la Plata basin (Argentina). Our aim was to describe the inheritance mechanism of the colour variations of the shell and soft parts of this snail and to study their potential use as a genetic marker. The wild phenotype prese...

The assessment of the risk posed by invasive alien species (IAS) to the environment is a component of increasing importance for Pest Risk Analysis. Standardized and comprehensive procedures to assess their impacts on ecosystem services have been developed only recently. The invasive apple snails (Pomacea canaliculata and P. maculata) are used as a...

Pomacea canaliculata is a South American freshwater snail considered as one of the world’s worst invasive alien species. A temperature of around 25 °C has usually been considered to be optimal for rearing P. canaliculata. Nevertheless, snails have not been reared under a wide range of temperatures to reveal the optimum for performance in terms of p...

Lithic particles are a common feature in the digestive tract of freshwater snails. Their role in the digestive processes has been demonstrated in some microphytophagous and detritivorous species, as they enhance growth, assimilation and reproduction. It has been suggested that they could have the same function in Pomacea canaliculata, a macrophytop...

Trophic flexibility is a relevant trait in the potential for organisms to establish widely, maintain high abundances and spread after invasion. Pomacea canaliculata is an apple snail that feeds primarily on aquatic macrophytes, although it also consumes other trophic resources that likely play an important role in its persistence and contribute to...

Reproductive mode, life cycle and fecundity are relevant to understand and predict the spread and impacts of invasive freshwater molluscs. Ampullariids or apple snails have been intensively studied in recent decades due to the fast global expansion and severe impacts of two species of Pomacea, a genus with a peculiar reproductive mode (aerial egg m...

The freshwater snail Pseudosuccinea columella was recorded for the first time in Argentina more than 60 years ago. Since then its distribution in the wild has been restricted to the northeastern provinces. Here we record the presence of P. columella in southern Pampas for the first time, extending its distribution more than 500 km southwards. The c...

A South American freshwater gastropod, the apple snail Pomacea canaliculata, has become a driver of ecosystemic changes in wetlands and an important rice pest after its introduction to various parts of the world, mainly Asia. The objective of this study was to study the effect of an abrupt interruption in food availability in the short term (up to...

LIFE HISTORY AND REPRODUCTIVE AND THERMAL BIOLOGY OF ASOLENE PLATAE, AN APPLE SNAIL FROM THE RÍO DE LA PLATA BASIN (ARGENTINA)

The Island apple snail was accidentally released in the rice fields in the Ebro Delta in Spain in 2010, and is spreading since then, threatening also the natural environment. In 2014, EFSA Panel on Plant Health performed an environmental risk assessment of Pomacea maculata for the EU. To perform this task the Panel followed a novel approach applyin...

Growth rates and size-age at maturity are life history traits that combine in different ways to achieve maximal fitness. The marine scavenger Buccinanops globulosus was used as a model to explore the variation on female size-age at maturity and reproductive effort among three populations characterized by different growth rates (slow, moderate and r...

Apple snails are known for the strong impacts they provoke in wetlands and aquatic crops by their macrophytophagous habits. Interestingly, they are able to persist after they have eradicated most palatable aquatic macrophytes in the invaded wetlands. Pedal surface collecting is a distinctive mechanism that apple snails use to capture materials in t...

Asolene platae is a freshwater snail of the Ampullariidae native from La Plata River basin in South America. Water temperature has an overwhelming influence on the biology of apple snails, though there are no systematic studies related to the thermal biology of this species. The effect of temperature on the activity, growth and mortality of A. plat...

Apple snails (Ampullariidae) are among the largest and most ecologically important freshwater snails. The introduction of multiple species has reinvigorated the field and spurred a burgeoning body of research since the early 1990s, particularly regarding two species introduced to Asian wetlands and elsewhere, where they have become serious agricult...

The populations of Buccinanops globulosus from three different sites of northern Patagonia were compared in the female reproductive cycle over a 2-year study period (September 2006–August 2008). These populations differed in demographic and life-history traits (sex ratios, size frequency distributions, growth rates and fecundity). Also, two of thes...

Most of our knowledge on the biology and ecology of Neotropical apple snails (family Ampullariidae) belongs to only three species out of the dozens that inhabit freshwater habitats distributed from the Florida Peninsula (USA) to Southern Pampas (Argentina). The worldwide interest in two of these species (Pomacea canaliculata and Marisa cornuarietis...

Pomacea canaliculata is a South American apple snail that shows a multiple mating behavior. The copulations are frequent and long lasting, and consequently the males have to face strong sperm competition. The outer gland at the base of the penis sheath secrets drops of mucus that females eat during copulation. These mucus drops are nuptial gifts, a...

Pomacea canaliculata is a freshwater gastropod native to southern South America and is listed among the world's 100 worst invaders. Diverse food sources can be exploited by this apple snail, including snails with gelatinous and subaquatic egg masses. Records of ingestion of their own egg masses (egg cannibalism), which are aerial and calcareous, ha...

Asolene pulchella is a dioecious freshwater snail from the La Plata basin, belonging to the Ampullariidae family. Our aim was to study the reproductive biology, including mating behavior, egg laying, and embryonic development under laboratory conditions. Copulations occurred underwater and lasted 2.66 h on average. The males produce fusiform parasp...

Pomacea canaliculata, an invasive apple snail native to South America, is a serious pest of aquatic crops in several parts of the world. The origin of inter-population variation in shell shape is thought to be both genetic and environmental but the reaction norms to specific environmental factors are still poorly understood. Our aims were to analyz...

Abstract Morphological variation among natural popu- lations is a phenomenon commonly observed in marine invertebrates and well studied, particularly, in shelled gastropods. The nassariid Buccinanops globulosus is interesting to study shell shape variation because it exhibits strong interpopulation differences in life history features, including ma...

Pomacea canaliculata is a freshwater snail that cultured under certain conditions could provide interesting rewards in research and aquaculture. P. canaliculata is usually reared at 25°C, though the optimal temperature for culturing this species, that balances growth and survival rates, is so far unknown. In this work we present results of growth a...

Apple snails (Ampullariidae) are renowned globally as successful invaders, as voracious pests of aquatic crops and as promoters of ecosystem changes in natural wetlands. However, a recent review highlighted that only 14 species of apple snails have been translocated beyond their native areas and less than half of them have caused ecological or econ...

Buccinanops globulosus is a commercially exploited gastropod common in coastal waters of the Southwestern Atlantic Ocean. We determined the age and estimated growth and mortality rates of B. globulosus in a population from Golfo Nuevo (Patagonia, Argentina). Age was determined by counting opercular rings and growth was described by the von Bertalan...

Pomacea canaliculate is a freshwater snail native to subtropical-temperate South America that has invaded several countries around the world. Temperature is probably one of the main limitations to the expansion of this and other apple snails to higher latitudes in invaded regions. Egg masses are aerial, and the duration of embryonic development var...

Pomacea canaliculata is a freshwater snail native from South America that together with some congeners, has invaded natural wetlands and paddy fields in several continents, especially in Southern Asia. The high variability in shape, color and thickness of Pomacea shells and the sexual dimorphism in many traits blurs the species limits and hampers t...

Size- assortative mating is usually present in populations where there is a positive relationship between female size and reproductive output. In this study, we tested for the presence of sexual size dimorphism, size-assortative mating and the effects of female size on reproductive output in a wild population of Buccinanops globulosus, an endemic n...

The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that positive rheotaxis and anti-detachment behaviors contribute to the persistence of Pomacea canaliculata in lotic environments. This invasive apple snail is commonly considered a lentic dweller. In a first series of trials in a laboratory flume, current velocity was gradually increased until snail...

Apple snails are freshwater gastropods with highly diverse feeding mechanisms (shredding, scraping and collecting) to exploit diverse food sources. Pomacea canaliculata is listed among the worlds 100 worst invaders, mainly due to its effects on aquatic crops and submersed macrophytes through shredding, its main feeding mechanism. In one of the alte...

Pomacea canaliculata is a freshwater snail native from South America that together with some congeners, has invaded natural wetlands and paddy fields in several continents, especially in Southern Asia. The high variability in shape, color and thickness of Pomacea shells and the sexual dimorphism in many traits blurs the species limits and hampers t...

Phenotypic plasticity in life history traits favors the establishment of invaders and may magnify their ecological impacts. Pomacea canaliculata, the only freshwater snail listed among the 100 worst invaders worldwide, is able to complete its life cycle within a wide range of conditions, a capacity attributed to its life history plasticity. Using s...

The peculiar adaptations of the dioecious freshwater snails belonging to the family Ampullariidae have recently been recognized as important, albeit neglected, models for evolutionary ecology studies. A review of the literature, mostly reports from unsystematic observations under laboratory conditions, revealed considerable variation (38 min to 20...

The invasive Neotropical snail Pomacea canaliculata is usually regarded as amphibious, although the relative significance of aerial and aquatic respiration is unknown. To investigate the degree of dependence on aerial respiration and its influences on microdistribution, experiments were performed in the laboratory and under seminatural and natural...

Pomacea canaliculata is the only freshwater snail listed as one of the 100 worst invaders worldwide. Recent studies have demonstrated that small Pomacea snails have higher foraging and competitive abilities than larger snails and hence that ecological and agricultural damage of this invasive snail may be size-dependent. Furthermore, females of P. c...

The effect of temperature on the activity of the freshwater snail Pomacea canaliculata was investigated through field surveys and laboratory trials. During winter most snails in the field were inactive but not in a deep lethargic state; the temperature at which half of the snails were active was 13-15°C. The time spent active and feeding increased...

Zidona dufresnei (Donovan, 1823) is a big-sized and long-lived snail endemic to the south-western Atlantic where it dwells in sandy bottoms between five and 115 m; females lay big egg capsules from which crawling juveniles emerge. An unusual population of Z. dufresnei inhabits the low intertidal and shallow subtidal zone of San Antonio Bay, the sou...

Pomacea canaliculata deposit egg masses above the waterline, and the embryos fully develop inside the cleidoic eggs (Pizani et al., 2005). During development, the embryos are submersed in a perivitelline fluid providing them with structural precursors and energy supplies (Heras et al., 1998) until eggs hatch by mechanical fracture of the calcareous...

Resumen Se comunica la presencia de la almeja asiática Corbicula fluminea en el Río Sauce Grande, constituyendo el primer registro en la cuenca de los tributarios directos del Océano Atlántico en la Provincia de Buenos Aires (Argentina). Las características de las valvas y el tipo de espermatozoides permiten ubicar a estos ejemplares en el morfotip...

Pomacea canaliculata, an apple snail native to South America, has become a serious pest of aquatic crops and a promoter of ecosystem changes in natural wetlands worldwide. Its success as an invader has been attributed to its great phenotypic plasticity in life-history traits. Our aims were to determine the reaction norms of size and age at maturity...

The males of the freshwater snail Pomacea canaliculata have a copulatory apparatus consisting in a delicate penis running through a muscular channeled sheath bearing three different glands. The outer gland is the most conspicuous one and often secrets a sticky drop of mucus during copula. However, its function is enigmatic because it opens toward t...

Pomacea canaliculata is a freshwater snail belonging to the family Ampullariidae, a taxon that includes Asian, African and American species collectively known as apple snails, and is the most widely studied snail in Argentina, being the object of different morphological, anatomical, ecological, embryological and taxonomical studies. Although early...

Pomacea canaliculata is the best known native snail from Argentina, a fact that has been enhanced since its establishment as a serious rice plague in Asian rice fields. However, from a paleontological viewpoint the knowledge of this species is far from being sound or integrated. Our aims are to review the fossil record of Pomacea in Argentina, to a...

The Patagonian mussel, Anodontites puelchanus, is endemic to the Negro river and its only two tributaries, the Neuquén and Limay rivers, showing a strongly disjunct distribution relative to the rest of the family Etheriidae The scarce information available suggests that this mussel has always been rare, that it inhabits sand-mud bottoms in lotic en...

Temnocephala iheringi is the most common temnocephalan inhabiting the mantle cavity of the apple snail Pomacea canaliculata, a freshwater neotropical gastropod that has become a serious rice pest in Southeastern Asia. T. iheringi has been recorded from Mato Grosso (Brazil) to water bodies associated with the Ro de la Plata river (Argentina). During...

Pomacea canaliculata is a neotropical freshwater snail that has invaded many countries around the world, becoming a serious pest of rice and a menace to native snails. In southern Pampas (Argentina) from late spring to early fall females deposit aerial clutches composed of hundreds of calcareous eggs on emergent substrates. Local bodies of water fr...

The Patagonian mussel Anodontites puelchanus is the only member of the family Etheriidae and one of the only two freshwater mussels inhabiting Patagonia. The scarce information available suggests that this mussel is endemic of the Negro, Neuquén and Limay rivers, where it inhabits sand-mud bottoms, that it has been rare since its first description...

Despite its widely recognized conchological variation, studies on the shell variability of Pomacea canaliculata are limited to its sexual and ontogenetic components. Here, we analyse the interpopulation variation in conchological and somatic traits, and sex-related growth patterns of P. canaliculata to discover if it is ecophenotypically or genetic...

Size-related and inter-population morphological variation were analyzed for Chilina parchappii (d’Orbigny, 1835) in the Napostá Grande stream, Southern Pampas, Argentina. Shell changes during growth are gradual and subtle: the spire becomes relatively wider and the outer lip less prominent. The apertural area grows more slowly than the somatic biom...

The presence of a diminutive penis, reduced to a small nuchal papilla, in some Patagonian species of Heleobia led to several taxonomic changes at the specific and generic level. Here I report that the organ that has been previously regarded as being a penis is not a functional male organ and that reproduction is parthenogenetic in H. hatcheri. The...

The presence of Corbicula fluminea (Müller, 1778) was recorded in three streams during an extensive malacological survey in southern Buenos Aires province. The observed high densities and large sizes suggest an introduction date earlier than 1995. Downstream spread from its first records in the Colorado River and the Negro River has also been regis...

International concern about the Argentinean apple-snail Pomacea canaliculata rose when it became established as a serious rice pest in Asia. Our aim is to analyze the information on its life history and to review the proximal effects of different factors on its life-history traits. Growth is continuous in most of its natural range but growth rates...

The Argentinean apple snail Pomacea canaliculata is a freshwater gastropod with a high interpopulation variation in shell shape, size and thickness. Previous experimental studies have shown that many life-history traits are highly dependent on rearing conditions. Three natural populations located in one same drainage basin and climatic regime showe...

The life cycle of Physa venustula Gould, 1848 (Physidae) in Napostá Grande stream is semelparous and subannual, with two or three poorly defined cohorts per year. Oviposition and recruitment are almost continuous. Juvenile mortality is high up to the length of 3.5 mm and decreases in subadults and adults. Density fluctuations are tied to hydrodynam...

The Argentinean apple snail Pomacea canaliculata is a recent invader in paddy fields in most Southeast Asian countries, where it has dispersed explosively since about 1980. Determinants of the natural range of P. canaliculata in its original area are poorly understood. In this study, factors affecting its distribution in the southern limit of its n...