Kingdom Animalia Scientific name Euconulidae Higher classification Gastrodontoidea | Superfamily Gastrodontoidea Phylum Mollusca Rank Family | |
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Lower classifications Palaua minor, Dupontia levis | ||
Euconulidae is a taxonomic family of minute, air-breathing land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusks or micromollusks. This land snail family is closely allied to the Zonitidae, the glass snails.
Contents
Distribution
The distribution of the Euconulidae includes the Nearctic, the western-Palearctic, the eastern-Palearctic, the Neotropical zone, the Ethiopian zone, Malagasy, south-eastern Asia, Australia, Polynesia and Hawaii.
Shell description
These minute snails have a shell which is roundly conical and broad-based, like the shape of an old-fashioned European woven bee hive or skep. For this reason these snails are sometimes known as "hive snails".
The shells of most Euconulidae are only about 3 mm in size, amber-colored and translucent.
Anatomy
In this family, the number of haploid chromosomes lies between 26 and 30 (according to the values in this table).
Genera
Subfamilies and genera in the family Euconulidae include:
Euconulinae
Microcystinae
subfamily ?
Cladogram
The following cladogram shows the phylogenic relationships of this family with the other families within the limacoid clade: