''Aegista diversifamilia'' is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

of air-breathing

land snail A land snail is any of the numerous species of snail that live on land, as opposed to the sea snails and freshwater snails. ''Land snail'' is the common name for terrestrial gastropod mollusks that have shells (those without shells are known as ...

s, a

terrestrial Terrestrial refers to things related to land or the planet Earth. Terrestrial may also refer to: * Terrestrial animal, an animal that lives on land opposed to living in water, or sometimes an animal that lives on or near the ground, as opposed to ...

pulmonate Pulmonata or pulmonates, is an informal group (previously an order, and before that a subclass) of snails and slugs characterized by the ability to breathe air, by virtue of having a pallial lung instead of a gill, or gills. The group includ ...

gastropod The gastropods (), commonly known as snails and slugs, belong to a large taxonomic class of invertebrates within the phylum Mollusca called Gastropoda (). This class comprises snails and slugs from saltwater, from freshwater, and from land. T ...

mollusk Mollusca is the second-largest phylum of invertebrate animals after the Arthropoda, the members of which are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 85,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized. The number of fossil species is e ...

from

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

Discovery and naming

''A. diversifamilia'' was previously identified as being part of the species '' A. subchinensis'', which was known to occur throughout most of Taiwan. In 2003, a paper was published remarking on the morphological and genetic difference between the eastern and western populations of the species. Eventually it was established that the eastern population was a separate species, divided from ''A. subchinensis'' by the

Lanyang River The Lanyang River () is a river in northeast Taiwan. Geology The river flows through Yilan County for 73 kilometers. It has a drainage basin area of 978 km2 with maximum peak flow of 5,420 m3/s. See also *List of rivers in Taiwan This is ...

. The new species' name is derived from

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

'' diversus'' and '' familia''. The name was chosen in recognition of the same-sex marriage movement in Taiwan and worldwide. Dr. Yen-Chang Lee, co-author of the ''

ZooKeys ''ZooKeys'' is a peer-reviewed open access scientific journal covering zoological taxonomy, phylogeny, and biogeography. It was established in 2008 and the editor-in-chief is Terry Erwin (Smithsonian Institution). It is published by Pensoft Publ ...

'' paper describing the species, said: "When we were preparing the manuscript, it was a period when Taiwan and many other countries and states were struggling for the recognition of same-sex marriage rights. It reminded us that Pulmonata land snails are hermaphrodite animals, which means they have both male and female reproductive organs in single individual. They represent the diversity of sex orientation in the animal kingdom. We decided that maybe this is a good occasion to name the snail to remember the struggle for the recognition of same-sex marriage rights." ''A. diversifamilia'' was selected as one of the top 10 new species in 2014.

Description

The shell is depressed and spherical, between and wide and to high. The shell is thin but strong, with a depressed conic

spire A spire is a tall, slender, pointed structure on top of a roof of a building or tower, especially at the summit of church steeples. A spire may have a square, circular, or polygonal plan, with a roughly conical or pyramidal shape. Spires are ...

. The

aperture In optics, an aperture is a hole or an opening through which light travels. More specifically, the aperture and focal length of an optical system determine the cone angle of a bundle of rays that come to a focus in the image plane. An opt ...

ovate Ovate may refer to: *Ovate (egg-shaped) leaves, tepals, or other botanical parts *Ovate, a type of prehistoric stone hand axe *Ovates, one of three ranks of membership in the Welsh Gorsedd *Vates In modern English, the nouns vates () and ovat ...

, to wide by to tall. The shell is a glossy chestnut- or yellow-brown, with a thin light brown stripe running along the periphery. The

peristome Peristome (from the Greek ''peri'', meaning 'around' or 'about', and ''stoma'', 'mouth') is an anatomical feature that surrounds an opening to an organ or structure. Some plants, fungi, and shelled gastropods have peristomes. In mosses In mosses, ...

is white.

Reproductive system

''A. diversifamilia'' is

hermaphroditic In reproductive biology, a hermaphrodite () is an organism that has both kinds of reproductive organs and can produce both gametes associated with male and female sexes. Many taxonomic groups of animals (mostly invertebrates) do not have separ ...

. The penis is long and thin, but shorter than the epiphallus. The

dart Dart or DART may refer to: * Dart, the equipment in the game of darts Arts, entertainment and media * Dart (comics), an Image Comics superhero * Dart, a character from ''G.I. Joe'' * Dart, a ''Thomas & Friends'' railway engine character * Dar ...

sac is positioned in the vagina, which is equal in length to the penis. The spermoviduct is approximately four times as long as the penis and oviduct, and two times as long as the hermaphroditic duct. Individuals lay 20–30 white, 3 mm diameter round eggs per

spawning Spawn is the eggs and sperm released or deposited into water by aquatic animals. As a verb, ''to spawn'' refers to the process of releasing the eggs and sperm, and the act of both sexes is called spawning. Most aquatic animals, except for aquati ...

Distribution and habitat

''A. diversifamilia'' is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

to eastern Taiwan, bounded on the north by the Lanyang River. It is found in the

Yilan Yilan may refer to: China *Yilan County, Heilongjiang (依兰县), county of central Heilongjiang province, People's Republic of China *Yilan Town, Heilongjiang (依兰镇), seat of Yilan County * Yilan, Jilin (依兰镇), town in Yanji Taiwan *Y ...

and Hualien Counties, but not on Guishan Island. The species is usually found in lowland hardwood forests, living in or under moist

leaf litter Plant litter (also leaf litter, tree litter, soil litter, litterfall or duff) is dead plant material (such as leaves, bark, needles, twigs, and cladodes) that have fallen to the ground. This detritus or dead organic material and its constituent ...

References

External links

{{Taxonbar, from=Q18327953 diversifamilia Gastropods of Asia Endemic fauna of Taiwan LGBT rights in Taiwan Gastropods described in 2014 Invertebrates of Taiwan