Lanistes is a genus of freshwater snails which have a gill and an operculum, aquatic gastropod mollusks in the family Ampullariidae, the apple snails.Bouchet, P.; Neubauer, Thomas A. (2015). Lanistes Montfort, 1810. In: MolluscaBase (2015). Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=820447 on 2015-11-11
Distribution The distribution of the genus Lanistes includes Africa and Madagascar.Brown D. S. (1994). Freshwater Snails of Africa and their Medical Importance. Taylor & Francis. .
Description Lanistes has a unique anatomy among the Ampullariidae: it has a "hyperstrophic" sinistral shell. This means that the body of the snail is dextral (as in all other ampullariids), but the shell appears to be sinistral. However the sinistral appearance stems from the fact that the rotation of the shell as it grows is in an upward direction rather than the usual downward direction."Shell" . The apple snail website, accessed 16 May 2011.
Species Three subgenera have been recognized, based on shell differences: Lanistes sensu stricto, Meladomus and Leroya. These subgenera are not used in recent works.
Extant species within the genus Lanistes include: Lanistes alexandri (Bourguignat, 1889) Lanistes ambiguus Martens, 1866 Lanistes bernardianus (Morelet, 1860) Lanistes beseneckeri Schütt in Schütt & Besenecker, 1973 † Lanistes bicarinatus Germain, 1907 Lanistes bloyeti (Bourguignat, 1889) Lanistes boltenianus (Röding, 1798) - synonym: Lanistes carinatus (Olivier, 1804)Bouchet, P. (2016). Lanistes boltenianus (Röding, 1798). In: MolluscaBase (2017). Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=843296 on 2017-06-06 Lanistes chaperi (Kobelt, 1912) Lanistes ciliatus Martens, 1878"Lanistes". The apple snail website, accessed 16 May 2011. Lanistes congicus O. Boettger, 1891 Lanistes deguerryanus (Bourguignat, 1889) Lanistes ellipticus Martens, 1866 Lanistes farleri Craven, 1880 Lanistes fultoni (Kobelt, 1912) Lanistes grasseti (Morelet, 1863) Lanistes graueri Thiele, 1911 Lanistes intortus Martens, 1877 Lanistes jouberti (Bourguignat, 1888) Lanistes letourneuxi (Bourguignat, 1879) Lanistes libycus (Morelet, 1848) Lanistes libycus var. albersi Lanistes libycus form bernardianus or as Lanistes bernardianus (Morelet, 1860) Lanistes magnus Furtado, 1886 Lanistes nasutus Mandahl-Barth, 1972 Lanistes neavei Melvill & Standen, 1907 Lanistes neritoides Brown & Berthold, 1990 Lanistes nitidissimus (Bourguignat, 1889) Lanistes nsendweensis (Dupuis & Putzeys, 1901) Lanistes nyassanus Dohrn, 1865 Lanistes ovatus (Olivier, 1804) Lanistes ovum Peters in Troschel, 1845 - synonyms: Lanistes magnus Furtado; Lanistes olivaceus (Sowerby); Lanistes procerus; Lanistes elatior Martens, 1866; Lanistes ovum bangweolicus Haas, 1936; Lanistes connollyi Pain, 1954 Lanistes ovum adansoni; Lanistes olivaceus var. ambiguus Lanistes palustris (Morelet, 1864) Lanistes pfeifferi (Bourguignat, 1879) Lanistes pilsbryi Walker, 1925 Lanistes pseudoceratodes (Wenz, 1928) Lanistes purpureus (Jonas, 1839) Lanistes solidus Smith, 1877 Lanistes stuhlmanni Martens, 1897 Lanistes varicus (Müller, 1774) - synonyms: Lanistes adansoni Kobelt, 1911; Lanistes millestriatus Pilsbry & Bequaert, 1927
Fossil species within the genus Lanistes include: † Lanistes asellus van Damme & Pickford, 1995 † Lanistes bishopi Gautier
† Lanistes gautieri van Damme & Pickford, 1995 † Lanistes gigas van Damme & Pickford, 1995 † Lanistes hadotoi van Damme & Pickford, 1995van Damme D. & Pickford M. (1995). "The late Cenozoic ampullariidae (mollusca, gastropoda) of the Albertine Rift Valley (Uganda-Zaire)". Hydrobiologia 316(1): 1-32. . † Lanistes heynderycxi van Damme & Pickford, 1995
† Lanistes nkondoensis van Damme & Pickford, 1995 † Lanistes olukaensis
† Lanistes senuti van Damme & Pickford, 1995 † Lanistes trochiformis van Damme & Pickford, 1995
References
External links Animation showing how the "hyperstrophic" sinistral shell evolved from a shell with normal orientation Schultheiß R., Van Bocxlaer B., Wilke T. & Albrecht C. (2009). "Old fossils–young species: evolutionary history of an endemic gastropod assemblage in Lake Malawi". Proceedings of the Royal Society B 276(1668): 2837-2846. .