Euconulidae

Euconulidae
A live juvenile of Plegma caelatura
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:	Gastrodontoidea
Family:	Euconulidae Baker, 1928
Subfamilies & Genera
See text

Euconulidae is a taxonomic family of minute, air-breathing land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusks or micromollusks. This land snail family is closely allied to the Zonitidae, the glass snails.

Distribution

The distribution of the Euconulidae includes the Nearctic, the western-Palearctic, the eastern-Palearctic, the Neotropical zone, the Ethiopian zone, Malagasy, south-eastern Asia, Australia, Polynesia and Hawaii.^[1]

Shell description

These minute snails have a shell which is roundly conical and broad-based, like the shape of an old-fashioned European woven bee hive or skep. For this reason these snails are sometimes known as "hive snails".

The shells of most Euconulidae are only about 3 mm in size, amber-colored and translucent.

Anatomy

In this family, the number of haploid chromosomes lies between 26 and 30 (according to the values in this table).^[2]

Genera

Subfamilies and genera in the family Euconulidae include:

Euconulinae

• Euconulus Reinhardt, 1883

Microcystinae

• Allenoconcha
• Aukena Baker, 1940^[3]
• Buffetia
• Cookeana
• Diastole Gude, 1913
• Faunulena
• Greenwoodoconcha
• Hiona Cooke, 1940^[3]
• Iredaleoconcha Preston, 1913
• Kaala
• Kusaiea Baker, 1938
• Lamprocystis
• Liardetia
• Mendana
• Microcystis
• Nancibella
• Periclocystis
• Philonesia Sykes, 1900^[3]
• Piena
• Pukaloa
• Tengchiena

subfamily ?

• Coneuplecta Möllendorff, 1893
• Plegma^[4]

Cladogram

The following cladogram shows the phylogenic relationships of this family with the other families within the limacoid clade:^[1]

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. 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.
2. 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.
3. Bouchet P. & Abdou A. (2001). "Recent Extinct Land Snails (Euconulidae) from the Gambier Islands with Remarkable Apertural Barriers". Pacific Science 55(2): 121-127. doi:10.1353/psc.2001.0011.
4. Plegma caelatura on iucnredlist.org

External links

• "Euconulidae". National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI).