Vertiginidae

Vertiginidae
Temporal range: Upper Paleocene-recent[1]
A live individual of Vertigo moulinsiana
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Gastropoda
Order: Stylommatophora
Superfamily: Pupilloidea
Family: Vertiginidae
Fitzinger, 1833
Diversity[1]
93–95 species

Vertiginidae, common name the whorl snails, is a family of minute, air-breathing land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod molluscs or micromollusks in the superfamily Pupilloidea.[2]

Distribution

The distribution of the Vertiginidae is in the Northern Hemisphere: North America (60 species), Eurasia (30 species), North and central Africa (3-5 species).[1] That gives a total of approximately 93-95 species.

Ecology

Snails in this family inhabit habitats ranging from forests to semi-open and open habitats with various different kinds of substrate cover, vegetation and humidity.[1] They feed on microflora - bacteria and fungi - growing on dead and living plants.[1]

Taxonomy

The following three subfamilies were recognized in the taxonomy of Bouchet & Rocroi (2005):[2]

  • Subfamily Vertigininae Fitzinger, 1833
    • Tribe Vertiginini Fitzinger, 1833
    • Tribe Truncatellinini Steenberg, 1925 - synonyms: Truncatellininae; Columellinae Schileyko, 1998 - raised in 2016 to family level Truncatellinidae
  • Subfamily Gastrocoptinae Pilsbry, 1918 - synonyms: Hypselostomatinae Zilch, 1959; Aulacospirinae Zilch, 1959
  • Subfamily Nesopupinae Steenberg, 1925 - synonym: Cylindrovertillidae Iredale, 1940

Genera

Genera in the family Vertiginidae include:

Subfamily Vertigininae

Tribe Vertiginini

Subfamily Nesopupinae
Subfamily ?

References

This article incorporates public domain text from the reference.[1]

  1. ^ a b c d e f Family summary for Vertiginidae. AnimalBase, last modified 03-09-2006, accessed 23 June 2009.
  2. ^ a b c d e Bouchet, Philippe; Rocroi, Jean-Pierre; Frýda, Jiri; Hausdorf, Bernard; Ponder, Winston; Valdés, Ángel & Warén, Anders (2005). "Classification and nomenclator of gastropod families". Malacologia. 47 (1–2). Hackenheim, Germany: ConchBooks: 1–397. ISBN 3-925919-72-4. ISSN 0076-2997.
  3. ^ a b "Mollusca" Archived July 18, 2011, at the Wayback Machine. Diversidad Biológica Cubana, accessed 23 March 2011.
  • Schileyko, A. A. (1998). Treatise on Recent terrestrial pulmonate molluscs. Part 2. Gastrocoptidae, Hypselostomatidae, Vertiginidae, Truncatellinidae, Pachnodidae, Enidae, Sagdidae. Ruthenica. Supplement 2: 129–261. Moskva
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