integrating morphology, breeding ground and mitochondrial coi gene analysis for species identification of bellamya lithophaga (gastropoda: viviparidae) in china.

background: angiostrongylus cantonensis is a zoonotic public health concern that causes human severe eosinophilic meningitis in southeast asia and china. as a medically important intermediate host of a. cantonensis , bellamya lithophaga (gastrop-oda: viviparidae) is often confused with other morphologically similar sibling spe-cies of genus bellamya , such as b. aeruginosa and b. purificata in the past. hence, the aim of the present study was to investigate evidences to discriminate these equivo-cal bellamya species. methods: this study was carried out by getting bellamya snail samples from fujian province in the south-east of china. the snail morphological features，breeding grounds and phylogenetic relationship according to mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit i (coi) gene marker were analyzed. results: based on external morphology, radular shape and cusp formula, as well as major breeding environment, b. lithophaga could be distinguished from b. aeruginosa , b. purificata . the phylogenetic tree also unconfirmed that b. lithophaga belongs to a different genetic clade from other morphologically similar species. conclusion: our findings demonstrate the significant differences in b. lithophaga and other sibling species, which supports the traditional species delimitation in the genus bellamya .