Latia

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Latia
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Gastropoda
Subclass: Orthogastropoda
Superorder: Heterobranchia
Order: Pulmonata
Suborder: Basommatophora
Family: Latiidae
Hutton, 1882
Genus: Latia
Gray, 1850
Species

See text.

Latia is a genus of very small, air-breathing freshwater snails or limpets, aquatic pulmonate gastropod molluscs in the family Latiidae.

This is the only genus in the family Latiidae, in other words Latiidae is a monotypic family. This genus has sometimes been placed instead in a larger family of freshwater limpets, the Ancylidae.

(Note: Gastropod taxonomy has been in flux for more than half a century, and this is especially true currently, because of new research in molecular phylogeny. Because of all the on-going changes, different reliable sources can yield very different classifications. This is especially true within groups which are poorly understood in general.)

Contents

[edit] Distribution

This genus is endemic to the North Island of New Zealand.

[edit] Habitat

Members of the genus are found attached to stones in clean running streams and rivers.

[edit] Shell description

The shell of this limpet varies from 6 mm to 12 mm in maximum dimension. The apex of the shell is strongly hooked. The shell color is dark. The shell has a small internal "deck" across one end like a Crepidula species.

[edit] Life habits

These animals have a pallial lung, as do all pulmonate snails, but they also have a false gill or "pseudobranch". This serves as a gill as, in their non-tidal habitat, these limpets never reach the surface for air.

These freshwater limpets are capable of secreting a bioluminescent substance when disturbed.

[edit] Species

[edit] References