Effect of desiccation on freshwater snail, Indoplanorbis exustus, intermediate host of schistosomiasis

Under laboratory conditions, snail Indoplanorbis exustus exhibited a strongly positive linear correlationship between duration of desiccation to mortality and body-weight loss and also body-weight loss to mortality. The adult stage of snail is highly resistant to desiccation, whereas the juvenile stage is highly susceptible. Reasons for decrease in susceptibility to desiccation with increase in shell diameter were suggested.