Lanistes is a genusoffreshwater snails which have a gill and an operculum, aquatic gastropod mollusks in the family Ampullariidae, the apple snails.[7]
| Lanistes | |
|---|---|
| |
| Lanistes bernardianus (Morelet, 1860) | |
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Mollusca |
| Class: | Gastropoda |
| Subclass: | Caenogastropoda |
| Order: | Architaenioglossa |
| Family: | Ampullariidae |
| Subfamily: | Ampullariinae |
| Genus: | Lanistes Montfort, 1810[1] |
| Type species | |
| Lanistes carinatus (Olivier, 1804).
| |
| Diversity[2][3][4] | |
| 21 extant species | |
| Synonyms | |
| |
The distribution of the genus Lanistes includes Africa and Madagascar.[3]
Lanistes has a unique anatomy among the Ampullariidae: it has a "hyperstrophic" sinistral shell.[8] This means that the body of the snail is dextral (as in all other ampullariids), but the shell appears to be sinistral.[8] 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.[8]
Three[3] subgenera have been recognized, based on shell differences: Lanistes sensu stricto, Meladomus and Leroya. These subgenera are not used in recent works.[3]
Extant species within the genus Lanistes include:
Fossil species within the genus Lanistes include: