Truncatella (gastropod)
| Truncatella | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Two live individuals of Truncatella subcylindrica: a juvenile on the left, and an adult on the right | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Mollusca |
| Class: | Gastropoda |
| (unranked): |
clade Caenogastropoda clade Hypsogastropoda |
| Superfamily: | Truncatelloidea |
| Family: | Truncatellidae |
| Subfamily: | Truncatellinae |
| Genus: |
Truncatella Risso, 1826 |
clade Hypsogastropoda
clade Littorinimorpha
Truncatella is a genus of very small land snails with an operculum, terrestrial gastropod mollusks in the family Truncatellidae. These small and minute snails live on land, very close to seawater. They walk with a strange looping action, and the adults have truncated shells. Many of the species are small enough to be considered micromollusks.
Truncatella is the type genus of the family Truncatellidae.
This genus occurs in tropical and subtropical areas. The various species of Truncatella are pantropical in distribution, with a few exceptions such as Truncatella truncatula and Truncatella subcylindrica.
Most of the species in this genus live in a habitat that is neither fully terrestrial nor fully marine: they live under plant debris near high tide level, where they are occasionally wetted with seawater by waves. A small minority of the species are fully terrestrial.
These small snails are typically found associated with drifts of plant material, where their eggs are deposited.
The adaptations of these land snails to the terrestrial environment are not so perfect as they are in the more usual pulmonate land snails, and their terrestrial adaptations may in fact be comparatively recent.
The genus Truncatella was erected by Antoine Risso (Risso, 1826) for T. costulata (now T. subcylindrica), which is the type species for this genus.
...
Wikipedia