印度扁卷螺

Meier-Brook (1984)[18] adopted an African (Gondwanan) origin for Indoplanorbis with rafting to Asia since the Cretaceous on the northward migrating Indian craton; this author also considered a Europe to Southwest Asia tract or an Africa to South India dispersal.[8] Morgan et al. (2002)[19] attributed the occurrence of Indoplanorbis in India to colonization (from Africa) via the Middle East land connection.[8] Clearly the two different dispersal mechanisms imply very different chronologies; the Gondwanan vicariance hypothesis implies that proto-Indoplanorbis has been present in India since the late Eocene (35 Ma; India: Asia collision), whereas dispersal via the Sinai-Levant suggests a Plio-Pleistocene arrival.[8] The results by Liu et al. (2010) indicated a radiation beginning in the late Miocene with a divergence of an ancestral bulinine lineage into Assam and peninsular India clades.[8] A Southeast Asian clade diverged from the peninsular India clade late-Pliocene; this clade then radiated at a much more rapid pace to colonize all of the sampled range of Indoplanorbis in the mid-Pleistocene.[8]

The snail is found in small ponds, pools, and less commonly in rice paddy fields.[8] The snail may also occur in semi-permanent pools formed in flooded areas of fields, where it can survive the dry season buried in mud.[8] The desiccation tolerance of adult snails is high, while the resistance of juvenile snails is very low.[24] Consequently, dispersal may occur in clumps of mud adhered to the bodies of cattle or across water in vegetation mats. It is possible it could be transported by birds.[8]

Indoplanorbis exustus is a hermaphroditic invasive snail species with high fecundity.[8] Within one year of introduction the snail is able to colonize habitats with well established populations of other pulmonate and prosobranch snails.[8] The snail requires a water temperature in excess of 15 °C for maturation.[8] At the optimum temperature of 30 °C each snail can lay up to 800 eggs.[8] There is from 2 to 43 eggs in one cluster with an average 20 eggs in one cluster.[25] The capacity for self-fertilization and high fecundity probably underlies the invasive potential of the species.[8] The average life span of Indoplanorbis exustus is 4 months[25] and during this time it lays about 60 egg clusters.[25]

現時本物種並沒有已知的天敵，不過有文獻透過實驗去測試一些物種會否進食印度扁卷螺的卵。Raut & Aditya (2002)在實驗裡讓一種屬於南美洲福壽螺科的Pomacea bridgesii去攻擊和進食印度扁卷螺的卵，以期望未來可以讓這種福壽螺來控制印度扁卷螺的數量[25]。

Indoplanorbis is of economic importance in that it is responsible for the transmission of several species of the genus Schistosoma which infect cattle and cause reduced livestock productivity.[8] The snail is also of medical importance as a source of cercarial dermatitis among rural workers, particularly in India.[8]

Indoplanorbis exustus is best known as the intermediate host responsible for the transmission of Schistosoma nasale and S. spindale, as well as other trematodes such as Echinostoma spp. and some spirorchids.[8] A third species of Schistosoma, S. indicum (Montgomery, 1906), is also transmitted by I. exustus.[8] Other snails have been implicated in transmission of these three Schistosoma species (such as Lymnaea luteola, a host for S. indicum and S. nasale, and L. acuminata, a host for S. nasale and S. spindale), I. exustus is the most important host for S. nasale and S. spindale, as well as for S. indicum in certain regions. I. exustus may be the sole natural intermediate host for these three Schistosoma species on the Indian sub-continent.[8]

Indoplanorbis exustus is also an intermediate host for:

• Artyfechinostomum malayanum - as the first intermediate host[26]
• 似锥低颈吸虫 Hypoderaeum conoideum - as the first intermediate host[26]
• 巨片吸虫 Fasciola gigantica[1]
• Paramphistomum mehrai[1]
• Paramphistomum explanatum[1]
• Gastrodiscus secundus[1]
• Petagifer srivastavi[1]
• Plasmiorchis orientalis[1]
• Pseudodiscus collinsi[1]
• Gastrothylax crumenifer[1]
• Enterohaemotrema paleorticum[1]
• Cotylophoron cotylophorum[1]
• Cotylophoron indica[1]
• Cotylophoron bhaleraoi[1]
• Cotylophoron mathurapurensis[1]

Indoplanorbis exustus has been implicated in outbeaks of cercarial dermatitis in human populations in India, Laos, Malaysia and Thailand.[8] Cercarial dermatitis results from the cutaneous allergic reaction in people exposed to larval schistosomes (cercariae) shed by infected snails into freshwater bodies such as lakes, ponds, and paddy fields.[8] The cercariae cause pruritis and papular eruptions, with often severe secondary infections, as they attempt to infect a non-permissive definitive host and die in the skin.[8]

一種在印度生長的大戟科植物紅雀珊瑚（）可用作植物性殺螺劑，有助對抗印度扁卷螺[27]。

黄果茄的酒精提取物亦可對本物種（LC₅₀ = 198.00 mg/L and LC₉₀ = 236.80 mg/L）[28]。

此外，另一種大戟科物種虎刺梅（Euphorbia milii），其雜交物種株的乳汁對於本物種的活躍度有所抑制，也可作殺螺劑使用[29]。除了虎刺梅的雜交種，印度的科學家Singh & Sunil在2005年發表的文獻亦研究過黃花夾竹桃（Cascabela thevetia）、黑板樹（Alstonia scholaris）兩種夾竹桃科植物及另一種較常見的大戟科植物一品紅（Euphorbia pulcherrima）的乳汁對印度扁卷螺的抑制效果[30]。