Aciculidae
| Aciculidae | |
|---|---|
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| Platyla polita | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Mollusca |
| Class: | Gastropoda |
| (unranked): | clade Caenogastropoda informal group Architaenioglossa |
| Superfamily: | Cyclophoroidea |
| Family: | Aciculidae J. E. Gray, 1850 |
| Synonyms | |
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Acmaeidae Pollonera, 1905 (inv.) | |
The Aciculidae are a family of minute land snails which have opercula. (An operculum is a little door that closes the shell when the animal retracts into it.) In other words, Aciculidae are terrestrial operculate gastropods. Even though Aciculidae are land snails, they live in rather wet conditions, among mosses and dead leaves and they have sometimes been described as "winkles come ashore".
Taxonomy
Previously this family was placed in the infraorder Littorinimorpha, in the suborder Hypsogastropoda in the order Sorbeoconcha in the taxonomy of the Gastropoda by Ponder & Lindberg (1997).
The family Aciculidae is in the informal group Architaenioglossa, belonging to the clade Caenogastropoda, (according to the taxonomy of the Gastropoda by Bouchet & Rocroi, 2005).
This family has no subfamilies according to the taxonomy of the Gastropoda by Bouchet & Rocroi, 2005.
Genera
Genera within the family Aciculidae include:
- Acicula W. Hartmann, 1821 - the needle snail, type genus
- Menkia Boeters, E. Gittenberger & Subai, 1985
- Platyla Moquin-Tandon, 1856
- Renea Nevill, 1880
References
- Horst Janus, 1965. The Young Specialist Looks at Land and Freshwater Molluscs, Burke, London
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