Abstract
The freshwater apple snail Pomacea canaliculata has become a major crop pest in southeast Asia and Hawai'i and threatens natural wetland habitats in these regions and elsewhere. Deliberately introduced as a potential human food resource, it has also been proposed as a possible biocontrol agent against aquatic weeds. Various factors may facilitate its rapid invasion of new areas; we focus on two: growth rate and food preference. Our field observations and laboratory experiments suggest that in Hawai'i P. canaliculata reaches reproductive maturity in 10 months or more, less time than in its native temperate and seasonal Argentina, where it takes 2 years, but longer than in parts of southeast Asia, where it may take as little as 2 months. This increased growth rate, and thence reproductive rate, probably facilitate rapid population growth. Although P. canaliculata is usually considered an indiscriminate generalist macrophytophagous feeder, laboratory experiments indicated preferences among the dominant plants at our field site and growth rate differences when constrained to feed only on one of these plants. Water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes), a major invasive weed, was not preferred in food choice experiments, and snails offered only water hyacinth on which to feed did not differ in growth rate from unfed snails. Another important invasive weed, water lettuce (Pistia stratiotes), was also not preferred, but snails fed on it did grow, though not as quickly as those fed on green-leaf lettuce. Among the food plants offered in the experiments the native Vigna marina was the most preferred. Therefore, although a generalist, P. canaliculata exhibits some discrimination among food plants. We recommend that it not be introduced for use as a biological control agent for aquatic weeds.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Acosta BO and Pullin RSV (1991) Environmental impact of the golden apple snail (Pomacea sp.) on rice farming systems in the Philippines. Freshwater Aquaculture Center, Central Luzon State University, Munoz, Nueva Ecija; ICLARM, Manila, vi + 34 pp
Baker GH (1998) The golden apple snail, Pomacea canaliculata (Lamarck) (Mollusca: Ampullariidae), a potential invader of fresh water habitats in Australia. In: Zalucki MP, Drew RAI and White GG (eds) Pest Management – Future Challenges. Proceedings of the Sixth Australasian Applied Entomological Research Conference, Brisbane, Australia, 29 September – 2 October 1998. Volume 2, pp 21–26. University of Queensland Printery, Brisbane
Cazzaniga NJ (1981) Evaluación preliminar de un gasterópodo para el control de melezas acuáticas su sumergidas. In: C.I.C., II Reunión sombre Malezas Subacuáticas en Canales de Desagüe de CORFO, pp 131–165
Cazzaniga NJ and Estebenet AL (1984) Revisión y notas sombre los hábitos alimentarios de los Ampullariidae (Gastropoda). Historia Natural 4: 213–224
Cerutti R (1998) An infestation of Pomacea canaliculata (Lamarck, 1804) in Lake Miramar, San Diego, California. The Festivus 30: 25–27, 29
Cole LC (1962) A closed sequential test design for toleration experiments. Ecology 43: 749–753
Cowie RH (1995) Identity, distribution and impacts of introduced Ampullariidae and Viviparidae in the Hawaiian Islands. Journal of Medical and Applied Malacology 5[for 1993]: 61–67
Cowie RH (1996) New records of introduced land and freshwater snails in theHawaiian Islands. BishopMuseumOccasional Papers 46: 25–27
Cowie RH (1997) Catalog and bibliography of the nonindigenous nonmarine snails and slugs of the Hawaiian Islands. Bishop Museum Occasional Papers 50: 1–66
Cowie RH (in press a) Can snails ever be effective and safe biocontrol agents? International Journal of Pest Management.
Cowie RH (in press b) Apple snails as agricultural pests: their biology, impacts, and management. In: Barker GM (ed) Molluscs as Crop Pests. CABI, Wallingford
Estebenet AL (1995) Food and feeding in Pomacea canaliculata (Gastropoda: Ampullariidae). The Veliger 38: 277–283
Estebenet AL and Cazzaniga NJ (1992) Growth and demography of Pomacea canaliculata (Gastropoda: Ampullariidae) under laboratory conditions. Malacological Review 25: 1–12
Halwart M (1994) The golden apple snail Pomacea canaliculata in Asian rice farming systems: present impact and future threat. International Journal of Pest Management 40: 199–206
Harley KLS, Julien MH and Wright AD (1996) Water hyacinth: a tropical worldwide problem and methods for its control. In: Brown H, Cussans GW, Devine MD, Duke SO, Fernandez-Quintanilla C, Helweg A, Labrada RE, Landes M, Kudsk P and Streibig JC (eds) Proceedings of the Second International Weed Control Congress, Copenhagen, 25–28 June 1996, Volume II, pp 639–644. Department of Weed Control and Pesticide Ecology, Slagelse, Denmark
Julien MH, Harley KLS, Wright AD, Cilliers CJ, Hill MP, Center TD, Cordo HA and Cofrancesco AF (1996) International cooperation and linkages in the management of water hyacinth with emphasis on biological control. In: Moran VC and Hoffmann JH (eds) Proceedings of the IX International Symposium on Biological Control of Weeds, 19–26 January 1996, Stellenbosch, South Africa, pp 273–282. University of Capetown, Capetown
Lach L (in press) Losses from aquatic weeds. In: Pimentel D (ed) Encyclopedia of Pest Management. Marcel Dekker, New York
Lach L and Cowie RH (1999) The spread of the introduced freshwater apple snail Pomacea canaliculata (Lamarck) (Gastropoda: Ampullariidae) on O'ahu, Hawai'i. Bishop Museum Occasional Papers 58: 66–71
Mochida O (1991) Spread of freshwater Pomacea snails (Pilidae, Mollusca) from Argentina to Asia. Micronesica, Supplement 3: 51–62
Naylor R (1996) Invasions in agriculture: assessing the cost of the golden apple snail in Asia. Ambio 25: 443–448
Neck RW and Schultz JG (1992) First record of a living channeled applesnail, Pomacea canaliculata (Pilidae), from Texas. Texas Journal of Science 44: 115–116
Okuma M, Tanaka K and Sudo S (1994) Weed control method using apple snail (Pomacea canaliculata) in paddy fields. Weed Research, Japan 39: 114–119
Perera G and Walls JG (1996) Apple Snails in the Aquarium. T.F.H. Publications, Inc., Neptune City, New Jersey, 121 pp
Schnorbach H-J (1995) The golden apple snail (Pomacea canaliculata Lamarck), an increasingly important pest in rice, and methods of control with Bayluscid. Pflanzenschutz-Nachrichten Bayer 48: 313–346
Simberloff D and Stiling P (1996) Risks of species introduced for biological control. Biological Conservation 78: 185–192
Thompson FG (1997) Pomacea canaliculata (Lamarck, 1822) (Gastropoda, Prosobranchia, Pilidae): a freshwater snail introduced to Florida, U.S.A. Malacological Review 30: 91
Wada T (1997) Introduction of the apple snail Pomacea canaliculata and its impact on rice agriculture. In: Proceedings. International workshop on biological invasions of ecosystems by pests and beneficial organisms, pp 170–180. National Institute of Agro-Environmental Sciences, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Tsukuba
Wagner WL, Herbst DR and Sohmer SH (1990) Manual of the flowering plants of Hawai'i. University of Hawaii Press and Bishop Museum Press, Honolulu, xviii + 1853 pp
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Lach, L., Britton, D.K., Rundell, R.J. et al. Food Preference and Reproductive Plasticity in an Invasive Freshwater Snail. Biological Invasions 2, 279–288 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1011461029986
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1011461029986