Endodontidae

Endodontidae is a taxonomic family of very small air-breathing land snails and slugs, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusks in the superfamily Punctoidea.

Endodontidae
Endodonta lamellosa shells
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Gastropoda
Subclass: Heterobranchia
Order: Stylommatophora
Superfamily: Punctoidea
Family: Endodontidae
Pilsbry, 1895[1]

This family, which includes both snails and slugs, appears to have once been much more diverse, but has declined, and is now endangered due to human activity.

Anatomy

In this family, the number of haploid chromosomes lies between 26 and 35 (according to the values in this table).[2]

Distribution and conservation status

This family is found only in the Pacific islands. The family is critically endangered and on the verge of extinction, mainly because of habitat loss due to human development. On American Samoa, some species are in decline due to predation by introduced fire ants.[3] On Rurutu in French Polynesia the family is only known by subfossil shells. At least 18 endemic species are known of which four were described in 2009 and eight were described as new to science in 2013. Only one of them survived into the first half of the 20th century. Most of them became extinct due to the degradation of their habitats.[4][5]

Genera

The family Endodontidae has no subfamilies.[6]

The following genera are recognised in the family Endodontidae:

References
  1. Pilsbry H. A. (1895). Manual of Conchology. Second series: Pulmonata (2)9(33a): xxi.
  2. Barker G. M.: Gastropods on Land: Phylogeny, Diversity and Adaptive Morphology. in Barker G. M. (ed.): The biology of terrestrial molluscs. CABI Publishing, Oxon, UK, 2001, ISBN 0-85199-318-4. 1-146, cited pages: 139 and 142.
  3. "Samoan Snail Catalog". Archived from the original on 2004-12-10. Retrieved 2007-07-01.
  4. Sartori et al (2013): Anthropogenic extinction of Pacific land snails: A case study of Rurutu, French Polynesia, with description of eight new species of endodontids (Pulmonata) In: Zootaxa 3640 (3): 343–372
  5. Zimmermann G., Gargominy O. & Fontaine B. 2009. — Quatre espèces nouvelles d’Endodontidae (Mollusca, Pulmonata) éteints de Rurutu (Îles Australes, Polynésie française). Zoosystema 31 (4) : 791-805. (in French)
  6. Bouchet, Philippe; Rocroi, Jean-Pierre; Frýda, Jiri; Hausdorf, Bernard; Ponder, Winston; Valdés, Ángel & Warén, Anders (2005). "Classification and nomenclator of gastropod families". Malacologia. Hackenheim, Germany: ConchBooks. 47 (1–2): 1–397. ISBN 3-925919-72-4. ISSN 0076-2997.
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