Dorcasiidae is a
family
Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...
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,
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 ...
s in the superfamily
Acavoidea
The Acavoidea are a taxonomic superfamily of air-breathing land snails and slugs, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusks in the informal group Sigmurethra.
This taxonomy was based on the study by Nordsieck, published in 1986.
Taxonomy
...
(according to the
taxonomy of the Gastropoda by Bouchet & Rocroi, 2005).
The family Dorcasiidae has no subfamilies.
Distribution
Found in
southern Africa
Southern Africa is the southernmost subregion of the African continent, south of the Congo and Tanzania. The physical location is the large part of Africa to the south of the extensive Congo River basin. Southern Africa is home to a number of ...
.
Genera
Genera within the family Dorcasiidae include:
* ''
Dorcasia'' Gray, 1838 - the
type genus
In biological taxonomy, the type genus is the genus which defines a biological family and the root of the family name.
Zoological nomenclature
According to the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, "The name-bearing type of a nominal f ...
of the family Dorcasiidae
* ''
Trigonephrus'' Pilsbry, 1905
[Gess F. W. & Gess S. K. (1999). "The use by wasps, bees and spiders of shells of ''Trigonephrus'' Pilsb. (Mollusca: Gasteropoda: Dorcasiidae) in desertic winter-rainfall areas in southern Africa". '' Journal of Arid Environments'' 43(2): 143-153. .]
* ''
Tulbaghinia'' Melvill & Ponsonby, 1898
References
External links
images
{{Heterobranchia-stub