Vespericolini

Vespericolini
Drawing: three views of a shell of Vespericola columbiana
from W. G. Binney, 1878[1]
Photograph: three views of a shell of Vespericola armigera
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Gastropoda
Order: Stylommatophora
Family: Polygyridae
Subfamily: Triodopsinae
Tribe:
Kenneth C. Emberton, 1995

Vespericolini, or hesperians, are a tribe of air-breathing land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod molluscs in the family Polygyridae.

It contains two genera: Vespericola and Hochbergellus.[2]

Habitat

These snails are found along the Pacific Coast of North America, with Vespericola found from southern Alaska and British Columbia to California, and Hochbergellus found only in coastal Oregon.[3][4]

Anatomy

The shells of these small to medium, globose or depressed globose snails are usually some shade of brown, sometimes without apertural teeth and sometimes with a single tooth on the parietal wall. Small periostracal hairs may be observed on the shell surface of many specimens, but the shells otherwise resemble those of Praticolella or Mesodon.[3]

The two genera, Vespericola and Hochbergellus, cannot be distinguished based on shell anatomy. They can only be distinguished by examining internal organs, such as the reproductive system.[4]

References

  1. ^ Binney, William G. (1878). The Terrestrial Air-Breathing Mollusks of the United States and Adjacent Territories of North America. Vol. 5 (plates). Bull. Mus. Comparative Zool., Harvard. Plate 13a.
  2. ^ Emberton, Kenneth C. 1995. When shells do not tell: 145 million years of evolution in North America's polygyrid land snails, with a revision and conservation priorities. Malacologia. 37(1): 69-110.
  3. ^ a b Pilsbry, Henry A. 1940. Land Mollusca of North America (North of Mexico). Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, Monograph 3, vol. 1(2): 892-912.
  4. ^ a b Roth, B. and W. B. Miller. 1992. A New Genus and Species of Polygyrid Land Snail (Gastropoda: Pulmonata) from Oregon. The Veliger 35(3): 222-225. available online at https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/42467292


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