''Galba cousini'' is a

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

of air-breathing

freshwater snail Freshwater snails are gastropod mollusks that live in fresh water. There are many different families. They are found throughout the world in various habitats, ranging from ephemeral pools to the largest lakes, and from small seeps and springs t ...

, an aquatic

pulmonate Pulmonata or pulmonates is an informal group (previously an order, and before that, a subclass) of snails and slugs characterized by the ability to breathe air, by virtue of having a pallial lung instead of a gill, or gills. The group inclu ...

gastropod Gastropods (), commonly known as slugs and snails, belong to a large Taxonomy (biology), taxonomic class of invertebrates within the phylum Mollusca called Gastropoda (). This class comprises snails and slugs from saltwater, freshwater, and fro ...

mollusk Mollusca is a phylum of protostomic invertebrate animals, whose members are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 76,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized, making it the second-largest animal phylum after Arthropoda. The ...

in the family Lymnaeidae, the pond snails.MolluscaBase eds. (2020). MolluscaBase. Galba Schrank, 1803. Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at: http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=716335 on 2020-12-14

Description

The length of the shell attains 13.8 mm. ''Galba cousini'' are intermediate hosts of the liver fluke Fasciola hepatica, the causal agent of

fasciolosis Fasciolosis is a parasitic worm infection caused by the common liver fluke ''Fasciola hepatica'' as well as by '' Fasciola gigantica''. The disease is a plant-borne trematode zoonosis, and is classified as a neglected tropical disease (NTD). ...

, a zoonotic parasitic disease.

Distribution

This species occurs in the Pacific Ocean off

Ecuador Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...

References

* Pilsbry, H. A. (1935). South American land and freshwater mollusks. 9. Colombian species. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. 87: 83–88. * Pointier J.P. (ed.). (2015). Freshwater molluscs of Venezuela and their medical and veterinary importance. Harxheim: ConchBooks. 228 pp

External links

Jousseaume, F., 1887. - Mollusques nouveaux de la république de l'Equateur. Bulletin de la Société Zoologique de France 12: 165-186

Preston, H.B. (1907). Descriptions of new species of land and freshwater shells from Central and South America. The Annals and Magazine of Natural History, (7) 20 (120): 490-498. London.
* Bargues M. D., Artigas P., Khoubbane M. & Mas-Coma S. (2011). "DNA sequence characterisation and phylogeography of ''Lymnaea cousini'' and related species, vectors of fascioliasis in northern Andean countries, with description of ''L. meridensis'' n. sp. (Gastropoda: Lymnaeidae)". '' Parasites & Vectors'' 4: 132. . cousini Gastropods described in 1887 {{Lymnaeidae-stub