Diversity and cercarial shedding of malaco fauna collected from water bodies of Ratnagiri district, Maharashtra

An investigation on the occurrence of snails in the water bodies of five selected sites i.e., Khed, Chiplun, Ratnagiri, Parchuri and Gimvi of district Ratnagiri, Maharashtra (India) was made during April–May 2006. The study revealed occurrence of nine species of snails viz., Indoplanorbis exustus, Lymnaea luteola, L. acuminata, Paludomus obesus, Ferrissia tenuis, Thiara (Melanoides) tuberculata, Bellamya bengalensis, B. dissimilis and Pila globosa, besides some species of bivalves. I. exustus was the most common species by occurrence in all the selected localities and next to it was L. luteola followed by T. tuberculata, B. bengalensis and B. dissimilis, in succession. Infection with liverfluke and amphistome cercariae was found in most of the collected snail species except P. globosa. However, the Schistosome infection has been reported only in I. exustus and L. luteola. The rice fields, streams and riverbeds shared most abundance of snails whereas those collected from rice fields shedded highest number of cercariae.