Aplexa

Aplexa
Shells of Aplexa hypnorum
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Gastropoda
(unranked): clade Heterobranchia
clade Euthyneura
clade Panpulmonata
clade Hygrophila
Superfamily: Planorboidea
Family: Physidae
Subfamily: Aplexinae
Tribe: Aplexini
Genus: Aplexa
Fleming, 1820[1]

Aplexa is a genus of small, left-handed or sinistral, air-breathing freshwater snails, aquatic pulmonate gastropod mollusks in the family Physidae.

Shell description

These small snails are quite distinctive, because they have shells that are sinistral, which means that if you hold the shell such that the spire is pointing up, then the aperture is on the left-hand side.

The shells of Aplexa species have a long and large aperture, a relatively high and pointed spire, and no operculum. The shells are thin and corneous and rather transparent.

Species

Species in the genus Aplexa include:

References

  1. Fleming J. (1830). Mollusca. pp. 598-635, in: Brewster D. The Edinburgh Encyclopædia. In eighteen volumes. Volume XIV [= 14] [MED-MUS]. pp. [1], 1-748, Pl. CCCLXXII-CCCC [= 372-400]. Edinburgh. (Blackwood).

Further reading