The Amazon forest is one of the world's most complex, unknown and threatened ecosystems that holds a considerable part of the Earth's biodiversity. This ecosystem needs greater scientific attention so that we can better understand the features of its fauna and conserve species before they become extinct. Thus, Amazonian Apple Snails addresses issues about resources within Earth's largest rainforest. In addition, the knowledge of the molluscs in the Amazon region is extremely scarce, and in most cases only information concerning their spatial distribution is available. Specifically, for the gastropods of the Pomacea genus, which were introduced in every continent and became known as pests, scientific knowledge in native areas is very important to understand. Research may help to control these organisms and the many areas they tend to invade. Specialists and scientists that work with apple snails in the Amazon and around the world can access new information about the species that inhabit this region with unprecedented advances in various scientific aspects such as diversity and occurrence, anatomy aspects of Pomacea in Peru, and phylogeny of this group in the Amazon region. Information about the biological aspects such as imposex development, effects of the dry season duration in the gastropod growth, aquaculture technical to human food production, and reproduction (including oviposition, fecundity, substrate selection, ultrastructural view of spermatozoa and egg predation). All of this is synthesized to bring the reader an informative compilation of data and research focusing on apple snails of the Amazon
Preface
Chapter 1. Diversity of Amazon Ampullariidae (Mollusca; Caenogastropoda) => pp. 1-20
(Silvana Carvalho Thiengo, Monica Ammon Fernandez and Daniel Mansur Pimpão, Laboratório de Malacologia, Instituto Oswaldo Cruz/Fiocruz, Referência Nacional para Esquistossomose-Malacologia, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and others)
Chapter 2. Anatomy of a Commercial Apple Snail from the Peruvian Amazon => pp. 21-38
(Andre Ampuero and Rina Ramirez, Museo de Historia Natural, Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Apartado, Lima, Peru, and others)
Chapter 3. Phylogeny of Amazon Apple Snails => pp. 39-46
(Luiz Ricardo L. Simone, Museu de Zoologia da Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil)
Chapter 4. Imposex in Two Apple Snails of the Amazon => pp. 47-66
(Aldeiza Marques Fonseca, Gustavo Yomar Hattori, Mércia Barcellos da Costa, and Bruno Sampaio Sant’Anna, Federal University of Amazonas (UFAM), Institute of Exact Sciences and Technology (ICET), Itacoatiara, AM, Brazil, and others)
Chapter 5. Effects of Diet and Feeding Frequency on Culture of Juveniles of Apple Snail Pomacea dolioides => pp. 67-88
(Amilcar Nogueira Píres-Júnior, Gustavo Yomar Hattori and Bruno Sampaio Sant’Anna, Federal University of Amazonas (UFAM), Institute of Exact Sciences and Technology (ICET), Itacoatiara, AM, Brazil, and others)
Chapter 6. Reproduction and Substrate Selection for Oviposition of the Gastropod Pomacea dolioides (Reeve, 1856) => pp. 89-108
(Izomar Barbosa Melo, Gustavo Yomar Hattori and Bruno Sampaio Sant’Anna, Institute of Exact Sciences and Technology (ICET), Federal University of Amazonas (UFAM), Graduate Program in Science and Technology for Amazon Resources, Tiradentes, Itacoatiara, AM, Brazil)
Chapter 7. Fecundity of the Gastropod Pomacea diffusa (Blume, 1857) in the Amazon Region => pp. 109-126
(Kerolen da Silva Costa, Gustavo Yomar Hattori and Bruno Sampaio Sant’Anna, Instituto de Ciências Exatas e Tecnologia (ICET), Universidade Federal do Amazonas (UFAM). Rua Nossa Senhora do Rosário, Tiradentes, Itacoatiara, AM, Brazil)
Chapter 8. Histology and Histochemistry of the Testes in Two Amazonian Apple Snails => pp. 127-144
(Lucas Rezende Penido Paschoal and Leo Jaime Filgueira de Oliveira, Curso de pós-graduação em Ciências Biológicas (Zoologia), Universidade Estadual Paulista “Júlio de Mesquita Filho” (UNESP), Rio Claro, SP, Brazil, and others)
Chapter 9. Record of Egg Predation of the Gastropods of Genus Pomacea => pp. 145-154
(Cláudio Rabelo dos Santos-Neto, Federal University of Amazonas, ICET/UFAM, Itacoatiara, Amazonas, Brazil)
Chapter 10. Effects of the Dry Season on Two Apple Snails of the Amazon => pp. 155-176
(Aldeiza Marques Fonseca, Timóteo Tadashi Watanabe, Gustavo Yomar Hattori, and Bruno Sampaio Sant’Anna, Federal University of Amazonas (UFAM), Institute of Exact Sciences and Technology (ICET), Itacoatiara, AM, Brazil, and others)
Chapter 11. Helminths Parasitizing Species of Pomacea in South America (Caenogastropoda; Ampullariidae) => pp. 177-196
(Silvana Carvalho Thiengo, Hudson Alves Pinto, Aline Carvalho de Mattos and Monica Ammon Fernandez, Laboratório de Malacologia, Instituto Oswaldo Cruz/Fiocruz, Referência Nacional em Esquistossomose-Malacologia, Brazil, and others)
About the Editors
Index
"Apple snails (Pomacea spp.) are ecologically important species, consuming aquatic plants and being preyed upon by many animals including the snail kite. Some of them became highly invasive when introduced into new areas. This book treats various biological aspects of little-studied Amazonian apple snails, such as taxonomy, phylogeny, reproductive biology, growth, predators, parasites, and environmental tolerance. Such information is important of its own, and also as a clue to understand how some apple snails became invasive."
– Yoichi Yusa, Professor of Nara Women's University, Japan
"In a scenario of conservation of the Brazilian biodiversity, where knowledge is the main pillar, this book comes to supply a lacuna when addressing the apple snails of the Amazon region. Among authors,there are renowned specialists, giving credibility to this book. With a wide approach, through the taxonomy, systematics, phylogeny, anatomy, biology, ecology and parasitism, to organize the knowledge dispersed in the literature together with the expertise of the authors, became a fundamental work to enrich the library of malacologists, mollusks lovers and snailers."
– Sonia Barbosa dos Santos, Associated Professor at Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (UERJ); President of the Brazilian Society of Malacology (SBMa)