Pachychilus
genus of molluscs
Pachychilus, common name the jute snails, is a genus of freshwater snails with an operculum, aquatic gastropod mollusk in the family Pachychilidae.
Pachychilus is the type genus of the family Pachychilidae.
Distribution
The distribution of species in the genus Pachychilus includes:
Cuba (2 species), Venezuela, Belize, Mexico, and others.
Species
Species within the genus Pachychilus include:
subgenus Pachychiloides Wenz, 1939
† Pachychilus lawtoni Perrilliat, Vega, Espinosa & Naranjo-Garcia, 2008 - fossil from Northeastern Mexico
Species brought into synonymy
Pachychilus aquatilis (Reeve, 1859): synonym of Doryssa aquatilis (Reeve, 1859)
Pachychilus drakei Arnold & Hannibal in Hannibal, 1912 †: synonym of Goniobasis drakei (Arnold & Hannibal in Hannibal, 1912) † (new combination)
Pachychilus glaphyra (Morelet, 1849): synonym of Pachychilus glaphyrus (Morelet, 1849) (incorrect gender of species epithet)
Pachychilus indifferens Crosse & P. Fischer, 1891: synonym of Pachychilus corvinus indifferens Crosse & P. Fischer, 1891 (unaccepted rank)
Pachychilus lawsoni Hannibal, 1912 †: synonym of Lymnaea lawsoni (Hannibal, 1912) † (new combination)
Pachychilus parvum I. Lea, 1857: synonym of Rehderiella parva (I. Lea, 1857) (original combination)
Pachychilus pila Pilsbry & Hinkley, 1910: synonym of Amnipila pila (Pilsbry & Hinkley, 1910) (original combination)
Pachychilus renovatus (Brot, 1862): synonym of Pachychilus cumingii I. Lea & H. C. Lea, 1851 (replacement name for Pachychilus cumingii I. Lea & H. C. Lea, 1851 as a secondary homonym)
Pachychilus reticancellata [sic] †: synonym of Pachychilus recticancellata (Kobayashi & Suzuki, 1939) † (incorrect subsequent spelling)
Pachychilus suavis Dall, 1913 †: synonym of Goniobasis suavis (Dall, 1913) †
Pachychilus tristrami Crosse & P. Fischer, 1892: synonym of Pachychilus gracilis Tristram, 1864 (invalid: unnecessary replacement name for Pachychilus gracilis)
Pachychilus violaceus (Preston, 1911) - endemic to the area from Santiago de Cuba to Baracoa, Cuba: synonym of Pachychilus nigratus (Poey, 1858) (junior synonym)
Pachychilus vulneratus P. Fischer & Crosse, 1892: synonym of Pachychilus chrysalis (Brot, 1872) (junior synonym)
Human use
One of the Maya peoples, the Lacandon people, now Mexico's native peoples from state Chiapas, use Pachychilus indiorum, known locally as "t’unu", as a type of protein supplement to their diet when animal protein is unavailable. In addition, the shells from this "chuti" snail have great nutritional value, as they provide calcium and slaked lime when burnt. They are often preferred as a lime source over local limestone or other freshwater snail species for their purity as an alkali. The slaked lime is added to maize during the process of making maize dough for tortillas, pozole, and other foods. Slaked lime allows the release of amino acids such as tryptophan and lysine and the vitamin niacin, which would otherwise be unavailable from the maize (unable to be metabolized) if the lime were not added.
References
External links
Lea, I.; Lea, H. C. (1851). Description of a new genus of the family Melaniana, and of many new species of the genus Melania, chiefly collected by Hugh Cuming, Esq., during his zoological voyage in the East, and now first described.
“Pachychilus” enters the record as genus of molluscs. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Pachychilus, genus and molluscs can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Pachychilus” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Pachychilus, genus and molluscs provides the most credible route into that argument.
Datasets, specimens, observations and peer-reviewed methods provide the appropriate test for the technical claims summarized here. The source revision retrieved here is dated Nov 14, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q7122102. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1939, 2008, 1859 and 1912.
Scientific names, classifications and consensus can change while older terminology persists in catalogues and historical literature. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Pachychilus” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.