{THE APPLE SNAILS OF THE AMERICAS ( MOLLUSCA : GASTROPODA : AMPULLARIIDAE : A NOMENCLATURAL AND TYPE CATALOG}

Ampullariidae are freshwater snails predominantly distributed in humid tropical and sub- tropical habitats in Africa, South and Central America and Asia. This catalog is concerned only with the American species, the majority of which are placed in the genus Pomacea. Species of Pomacea are found throughout most of South and Central America and the Caribbean, with a single species extending into southeastern USA. The other American genera are Asolene, Felipponea, Pomella and Marisa, all South American. The taxonomy of the group is heavily based on shell morphology but the true number of valid taxa re- mains unknown, pending revisionary work. This catalog provides the rigorous nomencla- tural base for this future work by bringing together all the available and unavailable genus-group and species-group names that have been applied to American ampullariids, indicating their current nomenclatural status (species, subspecies, synonyms, etc.). The catalog lists 14 published genus-group and 307 published species-group names for Ameri- can ampullariids. Of these, 7 genus-group (including 2 subgeneric) and 141 species-group (including 23 infraspecific) names are currently valid. There are 4 genus-group synonyms, 133 species-group synonyms, and 11 species-group homonyms. Also listed are 3 unavail- able genus-group and 23 unavailable species-group names. The catalog provides biblio- graphic details for all names, details of type localities and locations of type material, and geographic distribution as far as can be ascertained given the confused state of the tax- onomy. The catalog is a work of nomenclature; it is not a revisionary work of taxonomy. Key words: Ampullariidae, freshwater snails, nomenclature, type material, North America, South America, Central America.