Family CYCLOPHORIDAE

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Introduction

The Cyclophoridae are operculate land snails in the caenogastropod superfamily Cyclophoroidea. They occur in the tropical parts of south-eastern Asia, India, Madagascar and Africa, with a few species reaching islands of the western Pacific and northern Australia. In Australia, they are confined to the wet forest areas of north-eastern Queensland where they are found on leaves of trees and the understorey. The Australian species are mostly rather small in size with a short, sharply pointed spire and circular aperture. No recent revisionary work has been carried out on the Australian species, but Stanisic (1998) summarised the available data on the family.

Some classifications have amalgamated the Cyclophoridae, Pupinidae and Diplommatinidae as subfamilies of the Cyclophoridae. They are treated here, however, as separate families within the superfamily Cyclophoroidea.

General References

Benthem Jutting, W.S.S. van 1948. Systematic studies on the non-marine Mollusca of the Indo-Australian Archipelago. I. Critical revision of the Javanese operculate land-shells of the families Hydrocenidae, Helicinidae, Cyclophoridae, Pupinidae and Cochlostomatidae. Treubia 19: 539-604

Cox, J.C. 1907. A List of Cyclophoridae found in Australia, New Guinea and Adjacent Groups of Islands. Sydney : J.C. Cox 28 pp.

Iredale, T. 1937. A basic list of the land Mollusca of Australia. The Australian Zoologist 8: 287-333 [12 Mar. 1937]

Stanisic, J. 1998. Family Cyclophoridae. 704 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.

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