Radix balthica

Radix balthica, common name the wandering snail, is a species of air-breathing freshwater snail, an aquatic pulmonate gastropod mollusk in the family Lymnaeidae, the pond snails. The taxonomic status of certain species in the genus Radix has been disputed. Remigio (2002) reported sequence divergence within the 16S mitochondrial gene of Radix peregra and Radix ovata. Furthermore, the shell morphology and alloenzyme data indicated that Radix peregra and Radix ovata are distinct. In contrast, Bargues et al. (2001) considered on the basis of ITS-2 sequence analysis, that R. peregra, R. ovata, and R. balthica are in fact a conspecific species. All of Europe East to western Siberia, and also north Africa, Asia Minor and Afghanistan.Eurosiberian Wide Temperate. This species is found in European countries and islands including: The complete mitochondrial genome of Radix balthica has been obtained by shotgun sequencing and it has been released in 2010. The length of the mitochondrial DNA is 13,993 nucleotides. It contains 37 genes. Radix balthica lives in rivers and creeks, streams and streamlets and stagnant waters.It has high degrees of tolerance to pH levels, salinity concentrations and temperature conditions but it prefers calcareous waters (Welter-Schulte 2009).