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The exotic apple snail belongs to the Ampullariidae family.
They are big gastropods. They are globular shaped and vary in colouration from black to brown to yellow. They can grow up to one hundred and fifty five millimetres.
They are found in swamps and wetlands where they can eat aquatic plants.
Fertilisation is internal. The eggs are bright pink, the females lays the eggs on vegetation by mucous which dries. Once clutch of eggs can contain two thousand eggs but each egg is only one millimetre each.
Farmers do not like the apple snail as they are known to eat on the crops and it is also a carrier of lungworm.
The apple snail is an invasive species which was brought over for the pet trade in the 1900s.
Nas.er.usgs.gov, (2015). giant applesnail (Pomacea maculata) - FactSheet. [online] Available at: http://nas.er.usgs.gov/queries/FactSheet.aspx?speciesID=2633 [Accessed 14 Apr. 2015].
Rawlings, T., Hayes, K., Cowie, R. and Collins, T. (2007). The identity, distribution, and impacts of non-native apple snails in the continental United States. BMC Evol Biol, 7(1), p.97.
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