Limacidae

Limacidae, also known by their common name the keelback slugs, are a taxonomic family of medium-sized to very large, air-breathing land slugs, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod molluscs in the superfamily Limacoidea.

Limacidae
A live individual of Limax maximus
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Gastropoda
Subclass: Heterobranchia
Order: Stylommatophora
Superfamily: Limacoidea
Family: Limacidae
Lamarck, 1801[1]
Diversity[2][3]
12 genera, many species (more than 56 species)

Distribution

The distribution of the family Limacidae is the western Palearctic.[4] There are 28 species of Limacidae in Russia and adjacent countries.[5]

Cytology

In this family, the number of haploid chromosomes lies between 21 and 25 and also lies between 31 and 35 (according to the values in this table).[6]

Taxonomy

2002 taxonomy

Zhiltsov & Schileyko (2002)[7] elevated the subfamily Bielziinae to family level, Bielziidae, based on the morphology of the reproductive system of Bielzia coerulans.[7]

2005 taxonomy

The following two subfamilies were recognized in the taxonomy of Bouchet & Rocroi (2005):

  • subfamily Limacinae Lamarck, 1801 - synonyms: Limacopsidae Gerhardt, 1935;[8] Bielziinae I. M. Likharev & Wiktor, 1980
  • subfamily Eumilacinae I. M. Likharev & Wiktor, 1980[9]

Genera

Genera in the family Limacidae include:

subfamily Limacinae

  • Limax Linnaeus, 1758[5] - type genus of the family Limacidae
  • Limacus Lehmann, 1864; sometimes considered a subgenus of Limax
  • Bielzia Clessin, 1887 - with the only species Bielzia coerulans M. Bielz, 1851. Some authors, for example Russian malacologists,[5] classify genus Bielzia within separate family Limacopsidae.[5]
  • Caspilimax P. Hesse, 1926[5]
  • Caucasolimax Likharev et Wiktor, 1980[5]
  • Gigantomilax O. Boettger, 1883[5]
    • Gigantomilax csikii Soós, 1924
    • Gigantomilax lederi (Boettger, 1883)
    • Gigantomilax majoricensis (Heynemann, 1863)[10]
  • Lehmannia Heynemann, 1862[5]
  • Ambigolimax Pollonera, 1887,[11]; sometimes considered a subgenus of Lehmannia
  • Limacopsis Simroth, 1888
  • Malacolimax Malm, 1868[5]
  • Turcomilax Simroth, 1901[5]

subfamily Eumilacinae

  • Eumilax O. Boettger, 1881 - type genus of the subfamily Eumilacinae
    • Eumilax brandti (Martens, 1880)
  • Metalimax Simroth, 1896

Cladogram

A cladogram showing the phylogenic relationships of this family to other families within the limacoid clade:[4]

 limacoid clade 
 Staffordioidea 

Staffordiidae

 Dyakioidea 

Dyakiidae

 Gastrodontoidea 

Pristilomatidae

Chronidae

Euconulidae

Trochomorphidae

Gastrodontidae

Oxychilidae

 Parmacelloidea 

Trigonochlamydidae

Parmacellidae

Milacidae

 Zonitoidea 

Zonitidae

 Helicarionoidea 

Helicarionidae

Ariophantidae

Urocyclidae

 Limacoidea 

Vitrinidae

Boettgerillidae

Limacidae

Agriolimacidae

Ecology

Parasites of slugs in this family include larvae of the marsh flies Sciomyzidae, and others.

References
  1. (in French) Lamarck J.-B. 1801. Système des animaux sans vertèbres, ou tableau général des classes, des ordres et des genres de ces animaux; présentant leurs caractères essentiels et leur distribution, d'après la considération de leurs… Paris, Detreville, VIII: 1-432. Page 62, originally spelled under vernacular name "es Limaciers".
  2. (in Polish) Wiktor A. (1989). Limacoidea et Zonitoidea nuda. Slimaki pomrowioksztaltne (Gastropoda: Stylommatophora). Fauna Poloniae 12, Polska Akademia Nauk, Warszawa, 208 pp., page 141.
  3. "Families in Gastropoda" AnimalBase. accessed 10 September 2010.
  4. Hausdorf B. (2000). "Biogeography of the Limacoidea sensu lato (Gastropoda: Stylommatophora): Vicariance Events and Long-Distance Dispersal". Journal of Biogeography 27(2): 379-390. doi:10.1046/j.1365-2699.2000.00403.x, JSTOR.
  5. Kantor Yu I., Vinarski M. V., Schileyko A. A. & Sysoev A. V.(published online on December 22, 2009). "Catalogue of the continental mollusks of Russia and adjacent territories". Version 2.3.
  6. 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.
  7. (in Russian) Zhiltsov S. S. & Schileyko A. A. (2002). "Morphology of reproductive system of Bielzia coerulans (Gastropoda, Pulmonata) and phylogenetic relations of the genus Bielzia". Ruthenica 12: 73-79. abstract.
  8. (in German) Gerhardt U. (16 July 1935). "Weitere Untersuchungen zur Kopulation der Nacktschnecken". Zeitschrift für Morphologie und Ökologie der Tiere 30(2): 297-332. Page 329.
  9. (in Russian) Likharev I. M. & Wiktor A. (after 10 November 1980). Slizni fauny SSR i sopredelnykh stran (Gastropoda terrestria nuda) [The fauna of slugs of the USSR and adjacent countries]. Fauna SSSR, Molljuskii, 3(5): 437 pp. Page 290.
  10. Wiktor A., Quintana J. & Beckmann K.-H. (2007). "Redescription of "Limax majoricensis" (Heynemann 1863) (Gastropoda: Pulmonata: Limacidae) from the Balearic Islands. pp. 187-197. In: Beckmann K.-H.: Die Land- und Süßwassermollusken der Balearischen Inseln. ConchBooks, Hackenheim, 255 pp., ISBN 978-3-939767-05-3.
  11. Marshall, B. (2015). Ambigolimax Pollonera, 1887. Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=819989 on 2015-04-15
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