Abstract
Physids belong to Class Gastropoda; Phylum Mollusca have important position in food web and act as bio indicators, pests and intermediate host. Being resistant these are called cockroaches of malacology. Physid snails were collected from different water bodies of Faisalabad (Punjab) and were identified up to species using morphological markers. The morphometry of the specimens was carried out with the help of a digital Vernier caliper in millimeters (mm) using linear measurement of shell characters. Linear regression analysis of the AL/SW ratio vs AL and SL/SW ratio vs AL indicated that allometric growth exists only in Physa acuta when compared with P.gyrina and P. fontinalis. This study will lead to assess the status of the Physid species in Central Punjab. The Principal component analysis shows that the Component 1 (Shell Length) and component 2 (Shell Width) are the most prolific components and nearly 80 percent of the identification. The distance between P. acuta and P. fontinalis is 5.4699, P. acuta and P. gyrina is 7.6411, P. fontinalis and P. gyrina is 16.6080 showing that P. acuta resembles with P. fontinalis, and both these specimens donot resemble with P. gyrina. P.acuta is an invasive species and shows bioactivity making it a potent candidate for bioactive substances.
Highlights
In Physa snails simple linear measurements of the shell are quite useful for the characterization of the species and can be analyzed using Principal Component Analysis and Discriminant as these are being practiced by taxonomists since long (Dillon Junior and Jacquemin, 2015)
A number of studies on the basis of reproductive biology has shown that there is an over estimation in the number of species of family Physidae due to which two genus classification system of Physidea has been proposed by Wethington and Lydeard (2007) showing nearly 10 species belonging to genus Physa, with P. heterostropha and P. cubensis being the junior synonyms of the cosmopolitan P. acuta (Draparnaud, 1805), and P. hendersoni being the junior synonym of P. pomilia
Three species of the genus Physa i.e. Physa acuta, Physa fontinalis and Physa gyrina were found from sixty different villages of Faisalabad
Summary
In Physa snails simple linear measurements of the shell are quite useful for the characterization of the species and can be analyzed using Principal Component Analysis and Discriminant as these are being practiced by taxonomists since long (Dillon Junior and Jacquemin, 2015). The freshwater family Physidae (Pulmonata: Basommatophora) has a holarctic distribution, extending into Central and South America (Wethington and Lydeard, 2007). The aim of the present investigation is to study the taxonomical characterization of three Physa species from Central Punjab The species produce bioactive substances and show strong activity against S. aureus, E. coli, and P.auroginosa. These are strong candidate for the antibiotic drug development (Altaf et al, 2018). The Physid snails from the different water bodies of the agroecosystem of the Faisalabad were collected by random sampling during the months of October to March, by using hand-picking methods from irrigation canals of Faisalabad (Figure 2). All the specimen bottles were labelled with the collectors name, date, and ecological information
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