Family CYLICHNIDAE H. & A. Adams, 1854

Family Cylichnidae. Austrocylichna exigua (from Beesley, Ross & Wells 1998) [R. Plant]

Museums

Regional Maps

• Cylichnidae Adams, H. & Adams, A. 1854. The genera of Recent Mollusca arranged according to their organization. London : John Van Voorst Vol. 2(Parts XVI-XVIII) pp. 1-92, pls 56-72. [9].

  Type genus:

   Cylichna Lovén, 1846.

Introduction

The shells in this family are either cylindrical or barrel shaped, the aperture as long or almost as long as the shell, usually with a depressed or short spire. All species are infaunal, and this habitat is reflected in the drab coloured shells and animals. The animals are small, about one quarter of the shell length, with a pair of rounded lobes projecting rearwards on to the front of the shell. As a general rule, cylichnids have three gastral plates (usually a mirror image pair and one smaller to much smaller) for crushing and grinding their food, and the radula has at least a large sickle-shaped denticulate lateral tooth each side of the radular row mid line, and marginal teeth may also be present. Cylichnids are often common on intertidal and estuarine mud flats; and there are many subtidal and deeper water species, both named and unnamed. Compiled from Burn (in press).

Excluded Taxa

Misidentifications

CYLICHNIDAE: Tornatina voluta Quoy & Gaimard, 1833 — Quoy, J. M. C. & Gaimard, J. P. 1833. Voyage de découvertes de l'Astrolabe, exécuté par ordre du Roi, pendant les années 1826-1829, sous le commandement de M. J. Dumont d'Urville. Zoologie 2. Paris : J. Tastu pp. 321-686. (original combination Bulla voluta described); Hedley, C. 1910. The marine fauna of Queensland. Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science 12: 329-371 [Date published December] [370]

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. [949]

Burn, R. 2006. A checklist and bibliography of the Opisthobranchia (Mollusca: Gastropoda) of Victoria and the Bass Strait area, south-eastern Australia. Museum Victoria Science Report 10: 1-42

History of changes