Achatinidae (New Latin, from Greek "agate") is a family of medium to large sized tropical land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusks from Africa. The family includes some 13 genera.
Well known species include Achatina achatina the Giant African Snail, and Achatina fulica the Giant East African Snail.
Distribution
The native distribution of Achatinidae is Africa south of the Sahara.
Anatomy
In this family, the number of haploid chromosomes lies between 26 and 30 (according to the values in this table).
Taxonomy
The Achatinidae family is classified within the informal group Sigmurethra, itself belonging to the cladeStylommatophora within the clade Eupulmonata (according to taxonomy of the Gastropoda by Bouchet & Rocroi, 2005).
