Generic nomenclature of freshwater snails commonly classified in the genus Bulinus (Mollusca: Basommatophora)

Summary

Freshwater snails of the genus Bulinus Müller (Basommatophora: family Planorbidae) live mostly in Africa and many species serve as intermediate hosts in the life cycles of parasitic helminth worms which belong to the genus Schistosoma and cause the disease schistosomiasis in man and livestock. Consideration is given here to a recent proposal by Biocca et al. (1979) to subdivide Bulinus sensu lato into three genera, including Mandahlbarthia Biocca et al. for members of the B. truncatus/tropicus complex. This subdivision is undesirable, it is suggested here, for three main reasons: the proposed genus-groups lack clear diagnostic characters, the proportion of known species so far investigated in adequate detail is small, confusion would be caused in the field of applied malacology by changes in the nomenclature of species of medical and veterinary importance. Reasons are put forward to regard Mandahlbarthia as a junior synonym of Isidora Ehrenberg (1831).