Zonitidae

Zonitidae
Temporal range: Paleocene or Cretaceous – Recent[1]
A live individual of Aegopis verticillus
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Gastropoda
(unranked): clade Heterobranchia
clade Euthyneura
clade Panpulmonata
clade Eupulmonata
clade Stylommatophora
informal group Sigmurethra
clade limacoid clade
Superfamily: Zonitoidea
Mörch, 1864
Family: Zonitidae
Mörch, 1864[2]
Genera

See text

Zonitidae, common name the true glass snails, are a family of mostly rather small, air-breathing land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusks in the superfamily Zonitoidea.

Zonitidae is the only family in the superfamily Zonitoidea. The family's type genus is Zonites, established by Pierre Denys de Montfort in 1810. This family has no subfamilies (according to the taxonomy of the Gastropoda by Bouchet & Rocroi, 2005).

Distribution

The distribution of the Zonitidae encompasses the western Palearctic.[3]

Shell description

The spiral, heliciform shells of these snails are flattened in shape with a very low spire. The shell is perforate or umbilicate. The lip of the aperture is simple, lacking thickened margin. These shells are more or less transparent as if made of glass, hence the popular name "glass snails". The shells are colorless or of an amber to brownish color.[4]

Anatomy

Some snails in genera within this family create and use love darts as part of their mating behavior.

In this family, the number of haploid chromosomes lies between 21 and 25 and also lies between 31 and 35, but other values are also possible (according to the values in this table).[5]

Ecology

These snails live in damp places under stones and similar objects. The true glass snails are usually nocturnal.

Genera

Genera within the family Zonitidae include:

Cladogram

The following cladogram shows the phylogenic relationships of this family to other families in the limacoid clade:[3]

 limacoid clade 
 Staffordioidea 

Staffordiidae




 Dyakioidea 

Dyakiidae


 Gastrodontoidea 

Pristilomatidae




Chronidae




Euconulidae



Trochomorphidae





Gastrodontidae



Oxychilidae







 Parmacelloidea 

Trigonochlamydidae



Parmacellidae



Milacidae





 Zonitoidea 

Zonitidae


 Helicarionoidea 

Helicarionidae




Ariophantidae



Urocyclidae





 Limacoidea 

Vitrinidae




Boettgerillidae




Limacidae



Agriolimacidae









References

  1. "Family summary for Zonitidae". AnimalBase, last change 19-09-2006, accessed 4 August 2010.
  2. Mörch, 1864. Fortegnelse over de i Danmark forekommende Land- of Ferskvandbløddyr. Videnskabelige Meddelelser fra den Naturhistorisk Forening i Kjöbenhavn, 17–22 (fro 1863): 265–367. zonitidae on the page 274.
  3. 1 2 Hausdorf B. (2000). "Biogeography of the Limacoidea sensu lato (Gastropoda: Stylommatophora): Vicariance Events and Long-Distance Dispersal". Journal of Biogeography 27(2): 379–390. doi:10.1046/j.1365-2699.2000.00403.x, JSTOR.
  4. George Washington Tryon 1886. Manual of Conchology, volume 2, Zonitidae.
  5. Barker G. M.: Gastropods on Land: Phylogeny, Diversity and Adaptive Morphology. in Barker G. M. (ed.): The biology of terrestrial molluscs. CABI Publishing, Oxon, UK, 2001, ISBN 0-85199-318-4. 1–146, cited pages: 139 and 142.
  6. "Standard Report". ITIS. Interagency Taxonomic Information System. Retrieved 30 March 2016.
  7. "Standard Report". ITIS. nteragency Taxonomic Information System. Retrieved 30 March 2016.

Further reading

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