Family BITHYNIIDAE Gray, 1857

Museums

Regional Maps

• Bithiniadae Gray, J.E. 1857. Guide to the Systematic Distribution of the Mollusca in the British Museum. London : British Museum Trustees 230 pp. [24] [original spelling].

  Type genus:

   Bithynia Leach, 1818.

Introduction

The family Bithyniidae is characterised by the small to medium-sized, globose, variously sculptured shell with a raised spire, thick calcareous operculum, bifurcate penis and filter-feeding habit. This family of operculate gastropods is found in freshwaters of Eurasia, Africa and Australia. In Australia, members of the family are found mainly in the inland, on the east coast, and in the northern regions where they prefer backwaters and billabongs, but they are also common over most of NSW north of Sydney. The monograph of Australian species was published by Ponder (2003).

Alternative family names were used to the group, but Bithyniidae is established in Opinion 475 from the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature. Taylor (1966) argued that bithyniids were allied to the Viviparidae, however any resemblance is due to convergence (Ponder 1988).

General References

Beesley, P.L., Ross, G.J.B. & Wells, A. (eds) 1998. Mollusca: The Southern Synthesis. Fauna of Australia. Melbourne : CSIRO Publishing Vol. 5(Part B) pp. vi–viii, 565–1234. [759-760]

Bouchet, P. & Rocroi, J.-P. 2005. Classification and nomenclator of gastropod families. Malacologia 47: 1–397 [251]

Ponder, W.F. 1988. The truncatelloidean (= rissoacean) radiation—a preliminary phylogeny. Malacological Review Supplement 4: 129-166

Ponder, W.F. 2003. Monograph of the Australian Bithyniidae (Caenogastropoda: Rissooidea). Zootaxa 230: 1-126

Ponder, W.F. & Keyzer, R.G. de 1998. Family Bithyniidae. pp. 759-761 in Beesley, P.L., Ross, G.J.B. & Wells, A. (eds). Mollusca: The Southern Synthesis. Fauna of Australia. Melbourne : CSIRO Publishing Vol. 5(Part B) pp. vi–viii, 565–1234. [759-761]

Smith, E.A. 1887. Notes on Australian species of Bithinia, Segmentina, and Fusus and description of a new Melania. Journal of Conchology 5: 235-238 [12 Nov. 1887]

Taylor, D.W. 1966. A remarkable snail fauna from Coahuila, Mexico. Veliger 9: 152-228

Wilke, T., Haase, M., Hershler, R., Liu, H.-P., Misof, B. & Ponder, W. 2013. Pushing short DNA fragments to the limit: Phylogenetic relationships of ‘hydrobioid’ gastropods (Caenogastropoda: Rissooidea). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 66(3): 715-736 [721]

History of changes