The sugar chemoreception niches of Bulinus (physopsis) globosus (Morelet) and Bulinus rohlfsi (Clessin), the two most important snail hosts of Schistosoma haematobium (Bilharz) in west Africa

1. The behavioural responses of two species of freshwater pulmonate snails [Bulinus (P.) globosus and Bulinus rohlfsi] to sugar gradients were investigated by means of diffusion olfactometers. 2. Both snail species proved to be very discriminating in their responses. Of the 17 sugars tested, 35.3%,...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inComparative biochemistry and physiology. Comparative physiology Vol. 106; no. 2; p. 373
Main Authors Kpikpi, J E, Thomas, J D
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published England 01.10.1993
Subjects
Animals
Bulinus - metabolism
Bulinus - parasitology
Carbohydrate Metabolism
Carbohydrate Sequence
Carbohydrates - chemistry
Chemoreceptor Cells - metabolism
Molecular Sequence Data
Schistosoma haematobium
Species Specificity
Structure-Activity Relationship
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Summary:1. The behavioural responses of two species of freshwater pulmonate snails [Bulinus (P.) globosus and Bulinus rohlfsi] to sugar gradients were investigated by means of diffusion olfactometers. 2. Both snail species proved to be very discriminating in their responses. Of the 17 sugars tested, 35.3%, namely D(-)glucuronic, maltotriose, maltose, cellobiose, D(-)arabinose, D(+)mannose proved to be statistically significant attractants or arrestants to B. rohlfsi. Only 23.5% of these sugars (maltotriose, maltose), D(+) mannose and D(+) xylose were significant attractants or arrestants to B. (P.) globosus. 3. Glucuronic acid was a significant repellent to B. rohlfsi but none of the sugars was a repellent to B. (P.) globosus. 4. The results are compared with those obtained for other snail species and their relevance to the ecology and control of the snails are discussed.