Anatomy of a commercial apple snail from the Peruvian Amazon

Apple snails belong to the genus Pomacea Perry, 1810 and are distributed mainly within South America. In Peru, some of these species are part of the diet of human Amazonian populations. Taxonomy of these snails has been relegated to conchological characters, and the studies of apple snails have been focused largely on mass production for aquaculture. In this work we present the first description of Pomacea haemastoma anatomy, in order to contribute to the knowledge of the Peruvian species. Pomacea haemastoma is distinguishable by its medial spherical sheath gland, semiblunt penial sheath and elongated esophageal diverticula.