Rissoellidae

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Rissoellidae
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: gastropoda
Order: Heterostropha
Family: Rissoellidae
Gray, 1850
Genera

See text.

Rissoellidae are a family of minute sea snails, marine gastropod molluscs in the order Heterostropha.

Contents

[edit] Distribution

World-wide but sporadic.

[edit] Description

These shells are minute, fragile, glass-like, of simple elongate-ovate shape, found mostly living on seaweed. The animal is distinctive in having a pair of tentacle-like processes, additional to a pair of true tentacles. The eyes are in the middle of the bases of the tentacles. The operculum is basically oval, but shaped to fit the aperture, and there is a moderate to strong medial peg that is buttressed on the inner face. The radula is variable, and the teeth are relatively large, a central, a lateral, and one, two, or no marginals.

[edit] Genera within the family Rissoellidae

  • Heterorissoa
  • Jeffreysia
  • Rissoella Gray, 1847

[edit] References