Key to the identification of east and central African freshwater snails of medical and veterinary importance.

This identification key has been prepared to enable field workers in eastern and centra Africa to identify the species and subspecies of snails acting as intermediate hosts of various flukes causing bilharziasis and related diseases in man and his domestic stock.The area covered by the key is eastern Africa from the Sudan and Somalia in the north to Southern Rhodesia in the south. The key includes all species and subspecies of the three medically and veterinarily important genera, Lymnaea, Bulinus and Biomphalaria. All other freshwater pulmonates of the area can be identified as to genus only.Those features of the shells and soft parts of snails which are used in identification are discussed in some detail, and indications are given as to methods of collection, preservation and dissection of snails.