Family ELLOBIIDAE L. Pfeiffer, 1854
Compiler and date details
Brian J. Smith, Queen Victoria Museum, Launceston Shannon Reid and Winston F. Ponder, Australian Museum, Sydney
Introduction
This large family of primitive, pulmonate snails has a worldwide distribution. Most species are terrestrial or marginally marine. They occur in the upper littoral and supralittoral zones typically in sheltered areas such as estuaries and usually associated with mangroves or salt-marsh. Some are found in the terrestrial zone immediately above the region of marine influence. A few species are found in the upper littoral to supralittoral of exposed rocky shores and and in some other parts of the world some have taken up a true terrestrial habit, living in forest litter well away from the sea. Some species, found in sheltered marginal marine habitats of southern Australia, are mainly endemic to this region but have close association with New Zealand and South African forms. They are found mainly in association with amphibolids, assimineids, and truncatellids. The northern Australian fauna is much larger and more diverse in its habitat and is composed largely of species found throughout the Indo-Pacific region. This latter fauna is described in Benthem Jutting (1952).
Reviews of the evolution and affinities of the family are given by Morton (1955) and Martins (1996). There have not been any modern revisions of species of most groups within Australia.
Members of the family are characterized by the small to large sized, usually high-spired, ovate to cylindrical shell with apertural folds and teeth. There is no operculum.
General References
Benthem Jutting, W.S.S. van 1952. Systematic studies on the non-marine Mollusca of the Indo-Australian Archipelago. III Critical revision of the Javanese pulmonate land-snails of the families Ellobiidae to Limacidae, with an appendix on Helicarionidae. Treubia 21: 291-435
Climo, F.M. 1982. The systematic status of Auricula (Alexia) meridionalis Brazier, 1877 and Rangitotoa insularis Powell, 1933 (Mollusca : Pulmonata : Ellobiidae) in Australasia. National Museum of New Zealand, Records 2(6): 43-48
Hubendick, B. 1956. A conchological survey of the genus Plecotrema (Gastropoda : Ellobiidae). Proceedings of the Malacological Society of London 32: 110-126 [Date published 7/April/1956: 7 Apr. 1905]
Marcus, Ev. & Marcus, Er. 1965. On two Ellobiidae from southern Brazil. Boletim de Zoologia da Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil 25: 425-453
Martins, A.M. d. F. 1995. Systematic revision of Allochroa Ancey, 1887 (Pulmonata: Ellobiidae), with an account of the anatomy of Allochroa layardi (H. and A. Adams) and the description of two new species. Nautilus 109(1): 1-13
Martins, A.M. d. F. 1996. Anatomy and systematics of the western Atlantic Ellobiidae (Gastropoda: Pulmonata). Malacologia 37(2): 163-332
Martins, A.M. d. F. 2001. Ellobiidae-lost between land and sea. Journal of Shellfish Research 20(1): 441-446
Morton, J.E. 1955. The evolution of the Ellobiidae with a discussion on the origin of Pulmonata. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 125: 127-168
Shea, M. 1991. Elusive Ellobiids. Australian Shell News 76: 1-2
Stanisic, J. 1998. Family Ellobiidae. pp. 1076-1078 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.
Sykes, E.R. 1895. Review of the genus Plecotrema. Proceedings of the Malacological Society of London 1: 241-246
Wells, F. 1997. A review of the Northern Australian species of the genera Cassidula and Ellobium. pp. 213-229 in Hanley, H.R., Caswell, G., Megirian, D. & Larson, H.K. (eds). The Marine Flora and Fauna of Darwin Harbour, Northern Territory, Australia. Proceedings of the Sixth International Marine Biology Workshop. Darwin : Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory 466 pp.
History of changes
| Published | As part of group | Action Date | Action Type | Compiler(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 04-Dec-2018 | HETEROBRANCHIA | 08-Nov-2018 | MODIFIED | |
| 12-Feb-2010 | (import) |