Family LEPIDOMENIIDAE

Lepidomeniidae

© Copyright K. Hollis.

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Introduction

As presently constituted, the Lepidomeniidae consists of three genera and six species of Neomeniomorpha. However, the nominate genus and species, Lepidomenia hystrix Marion & Kowalevsky from the Mediterranean, is known only from the original descriptions (Marion & Kowalevsky 1886; Kowalevsky & Marion 1887) in which the form of the spicules is ambiguous. The inter-relationships of the three genera are therefore not at all clear.

All species are small and meiofaunal, usually less than 3.5 mm long, and translucent with thin, leaf-like spicules that give the animals a silky sheen. They are distinguished from similar-looking species in the family Gymnomeniidae by the form of the pharyngeal salivary glands, which are diffuse goblet cells in the Gymnomeniidae, and paired, lateroventral, multicellular, short tubular glands in the Lepidomeniidae. In both families the radula is minute, formed of rows of two hook-like teeth bearing two or more denticles medially. Paired copulatory spicules with two or more spicules are usually present.

Australian species of Lepidomeniidae belong to the genus Tegulaherpia. Besides T. tasmanica Salvini-Plawen, there are other unnamed Australian species of Tegulaherpia, in Bass Strait and off Townsville, Queensland (Scheltema 1998).

General References

Kowalevsky, A.O. & Marion, A.F. 1887. Contributions à l'histoire des Solenogastres ou Aplacophores. Annales du Musée d'Histoire Naturelle de Marseille, Zoologie Zool. 3, Mem. 1: 1- 77

Marion, A.F. & Kowalevsky, A.O. 1886. Organisation du Lepidomenia hystrix, nouveau type de Solenogastre. Comptes Rendus (Hebdomadaires) des Séances de l'Academie des Sciences. Série D. Sciences Naturelles 103: 757-759

Scheltema, A.H. 1998. Class Aplacophora. pp. 145-147 in Beesley, P.L., Ross, G.J.B. & Wells, A. (eds). Mollusca: The Southern Synthesis. Fauna of Australia. Melbourne : CSIRO Publishing Vol. 5(Part A) pp. xvi, 1-563.

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