Persiculinae

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Persiculinae

A live individual from this subfamily

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Mollusca
Class:	Gastropoda
Subclass:	Orthogastropoda
Superorder:	Caenogastropoda
Order:	Sorbeoconcha
Suborder:	Hypsogastropoda
Infraorder:	Neogastropoda
Family:	Cystiscidae
Subfamily:	Persiculinae Coovert and Coovert, 1995

Persiculinae is a taxonomic subfamily of minute to small predatory sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks. This subfamily includes several species which are micromollusks.

The subfamily is sometimes placed in the family Cystiscidae, and is sometimes instead left in the family Marginellidae the margin snails. It is within the infraorder Neogastropoda.

(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.)

1 Shell description
2 Description of soft parts
3 Internal anatomy
4 Genera
5 Comparative shell anatomy of the three genera within this subfamily

[edit] Shell description

The shell minute to large, white, uniformly colored, or patterned; spire immersed or low to tall; lip thickened, smooth or lirate; external varix present or absent; siphonal notch present or absent; weak to distinct posterior notch present; columella multiplicate with combined total of 3 to 13 plications plus parietal lirae; internal whorls cystiscid type.

[edit] Description of soft parts

Animal with short to long tentacles, rarely absent; siphon short to long; eyes situated laterally on head slightly below the base of the tentacles; mantle usually not extending over external shell surface.

[edit] Internal anatomy

Odontophoral cartilages separate; valve of Leiblein present, with or without bypass tube; esophaegeal caecum absent; gland of Leiblein short, small, emptying directly into posterior end of esophagus; paired salivary glands ascinous or tubular, attached to esophagus just anterior to the valve of Leiblein, ducts attached to walls of esophagus; single accessory salivary gland present, ascinous or tubular, anal gland absent.