| Pleuroceridae | |
|---|---|
| Io fluvialis | |
| Athearnia anthonyi | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Mollusca |
| Class: | Gastropoda |
| (unranked): | clade Caenogastropoda clade Sorbeoconcha |
| Superfamily: | Cerithioidea |
| Family: | Pleuroceridae Fischer, 1885 |
| Diversity | |
| about 150 extant species[1] | |
Pleuroceridae, common name pleurocerids, is a family of small to medium-sized freshwater snails, aquatic gilled gastropod mollusks in the superfamily Cerithioidea.These snails have an operculum and typically a robust high-spired shell.
Reproduction is iteroparous, and juvenile snails emerge from eggs laid on a firm surface by a gonochoristic female. There is no veliger stage.
Contents |
As currently defined, this family is confined entirely to eastern North American fresh waters. Similar snails formerly classified with Pleuroceridae, but now assigned to other families are widespread in temperate and tropical parts of Southern and Eastern Asia, and Africa. Most require unpolluted rivers and streams, but a few are adapted to living in lakes or reservoirs.
The following two subfamilies have been recognized in the taxonomy of Bouchet & Rocroi (2005):
Subfamily Semisulcospirinae within Pleuroceridae was elevated to family level Semisulcospiridae by Strong & Köhler (2009).[2]
Genera within the family Pleuroceridae are organized in the one subfamily only since 2009 and they include:
Pleurocerinae