Desmopteridae is a family of pelagic

sea snail Sea snail is a common name for slow-moving marine gastropod molluscs, usually with visible external shells, such as whelk or abalone. They share the taxonomic class Gastropoda with slugs, which are distinguished from snails primarily by the ...

s or "sea butterflies",

marine Marine is an adjective meaning of or pertaining to the sea or ocean. Marine or marines may refer to: Ocean * Maritime (disambiguation) * Marine art * Marine biology * Marine debris * Marine habitats * Marine life * Marine pollution Military * ...

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 ...

s in the superfamily

Cymbulioidea Cymbulioidea is a taxonomic superfamily of pelagic "sea butterflies", one group of swimming sea snails. They are holoplanktonic opisthobranch gastropod molluscs in the clade Thecosomata. Anatomy Some groups within this superfamily possess ...

. This family has no subfamilies (according to the taxonomy of the Gastropoda by Bouchet & Rocroi, 2005). '' Desmopterus'' Chun, 1889 is the type genus of the family Desmopteridae. The species are protandric hermaphrodites. There is no shell, no

protoconch A protoconch (meaning first or earliest or original shell) is an embryonic or larval shell which occurs in some classes of molluscs, e.g., the initial chamber of an ammonite or the larval shell of a gastropod. In older texts it is also called ...

and no longer any supporting tissue. The body consists almost completely of the two big parapodia (winglike flaps).

Species

Species within the genus ''Desmopterus'' include: * '' Desmopterus cirropterus'' Gegenbaur, 1855 * '' Desmopterus gardineri'' Tesch, 1910 - Distribution: Indian Ocean. * '' Desmopterus pacificus'' Essenberg, 1919 - Distribution: California, Oceanic. Description: shorter wing plate tentacles. *'' Desmopterus papilio'' Chun, 1889Gofas, S. (2010). ''Desmopterus papilio'' Chun, 1889. In: Bouchet, P.; Gofas, S.; Rosenberg, G. (2010) World Marine Mollusca database. Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=139542 on 2010-12-18 Distribution: Seychelles, Florida, Bermuda, Venezuela, Brazil, Adriatic Sea, tropical and subtropical oceanic waters. Length: body length between 0.5 – 2.0 mm, swimming wings between 2.0- 4.0 mm. Description: There is no shell. The animal has wings that are disc-shaped and transparent. The body is large and situated centrally between the lateral wings. These can unite to form a plate with on each side long, ciliated tentacles trailing behind. Most of the time, ''Desmopterus papilio'' hangs motionless, but flaps away in a loop pattern when disturbed. There are reddish-brown spots at the margin of the wings.

Species

References

Further reading