Haplotrematidae

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Haplotrematidae
Haplotrema vancouverense from W. G. Binney, 1878
Haplotrema vancouverense from W. G. Binney, 1878 [1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Gastropoda
Order: Pulmonata
Suborder: Eupulmonata
Infraorder: Stylommatophora
Parvorder: Sigmurethra
Superfamily: Rhytidoidea
Family: Haplotrematidae
H. B. Baker, 1931 [2]
Genera
see text

Haplotrematidae is a family of carnivorous gastropods. These are North American land snails. They are distributed from Alaska, through coastal Canada, and as far south as northern Mexico, but are predominately snails of the eastern and western United States. [3] Their shells vary in size from small (7 mm in diameter, or about 0.3 inches) to medium (32 mm, about 1.3 inches), usually with a low, flattened spire, a very wide umbilicus, and usually with the upper lip margin (at the aperture) curving downwards or straightened. They have a number of anatomical peculiarities, and the structure of the radula of these snails (their "teeth") is unusual. Essentially, haplotrematids have fewer cusps than most snails, but they are considerably elogated, suitable for the predatory life they follow. Members of this family have been given the common name "lancetooth" snails, presumably based on this last anatomical characteristic. Their sole food source consists, as far as is known, of other terrestrial mollusks. [4] [3]

[edit] Genera

[edit] References

  1. ^ Binney, William G. 1878. The Terrestrial Air-Breathing Mollusks of the United States and Adjacent Territories of North America. Vol. 5 (plates). Bull. Mus. Comparative Zool., Harvard. Plate 20.
  2. ^ Baker, Horace B. 1931. Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia 82: 405.
  3. ^ a b Pilsbry, Henry A. 1946. Land Mollusca of North America (North of Mexico). Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, Monograph 3, vol. 2(1): 201-230.
  4. ^ http://www.xerces.org/Wings/spring2003.htm Atkinson, Jim. Wings: Spring 2003. Living in a World of Tastes and Smells.