Ficidae,

common name In biology, a common name of a taxon or organism (also known as a vernacular name, English name, colloquial name, country name, popular name, or farmer's name) is a name that is based on the normal language of everyday life; and is often contrast ...

the fig shells are 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 medium to large

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 ...

s. It is the only family in the superfamily Ficoidea. According to taxonomy of the Gastropoda by Bouchet & Rocroi (2005) the family Ficidae has no subfamilies. The shells of these snails are shaped rather like

fig The fig is the edible fruit of ''Ficus carica'', a species of small tree in the flowering plant family Moraceae. Native to the Mediterranean and western Asia, it has been cultivated since ancient times and is now widely grown throughout the world ...

s or

pear Pears are fruits produced and consumed around the world, growing on a tree and harvested in the Northern Hemisphere in late summer into October. The pear tree and shrub are a species of genus ''Pyrus'' , in the family Rosaceae, bearing the p ...

s, hence the common name. The Ficidae were previously included in the Tonnaceae (now

Tonnoidea The Tonnoidea are a superfamily of sea snails, marine gastropod molluscs in the order Littorinimorpha. This superfamily includes many very large species. Nomenclature Beu (1998, 2008) favours usage of Tonnoidea and Tonnidae rather than Cas ...

) along with the

Tonnidae The Tonnidae are a family (biology), family of medium-sized to very large sea snails, known as the tun shells. These are marine invertebrates, marine gastropod molluscs in the clade Littorinimorpha. The name ''tun'' refers to the snails' shell sh ...

and Cassididae.

Distribution

The family is found worldwide, mostly in

tropical The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the Equator. They are defined in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the Northern Hemisphere at N and the Tropic of Capricorn in the Southern Hemisphere at S. The tropics are also referred to ...

and

subtropical The subtropical zones or subtropics are geographical zone, geographical and Köppen climate classification, climate zones to the Northern Hemisphere, north and Southern Hemisphere, south of the tropics. Geographically part of the Geographical z ...

silt Silt is granular material of a size between sand and clay and composed mostly of broken grains of quartz. Silt may occur as a soil (often mixed with sand or clay) or as sediment mixed in suspension with water. Silt usually has a floury feel when ...

and

mud A MUD (; originally multi-user dungeon, with later variants multi-user dimension and multi-user domain) is a Multiplayer video game, multiplayer Time-keeping systems in games#Real-time, real-time virtual world, usually Text-based game, text-bas ...

covered

neritic zone The neritic zone (or sublittoral zone) is the relatively shallow part of the ocean above the drop-off of the continental shelf, approximately in depth. From the point of view of marine biology it forms a relatively stable and well-illuminated ...

Shell description

The shells of species in the Ficidae are thin but strong. They have a large

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 ...

and a long

siphonal canal The siphonal canal is an anatomical feature of the shells of certain groups of sea snails within the clade Neogastropoda. Some sea marine gastropods have a soft tubular anterior extension of the mantle called a siphon through which water is ...

, but an extremely low

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 ...

which does not protrude above the outline of the

body whorl The body whorl is part of the morphology of the shell in those gastropod mollusks that possess a coiled shell. The term is also sometimes used in a similar way to describe the shell of a cephalopod mollusk. In gastropods In gastropods, the b ...

. Fig shells very often have subdued spiral

ribbing Ribbing is a Swedish noble family of medieval origin. which may refer to: *Adolph Ribbing (1765–1843), Swedish count and politician who took part in the regicide of Gustav III in 1792 *Beata Rosenhane (1638–1674, spouse of Baron Erik Ribbing), ...

, and are subtly patterned in shades of very pale brown and

beige Beige is variously described as a pale sandy fawn color, a grayish tan, a light-grayish yellowish brown, or a pale to grayish yellow. It takes its name from French, where the word originally meant natural wool that has been neither bleached no ...

Genera

Genera within the family Ficidae include: * ''

Ficus ''Ficus'' ( or ) is a genus of about 850 species of woody trees, shrubs, vines, epiphytes and hemiepiphytes in the family Moraceae. Collectively known as fig trees or figs, they are native throughout the tropics with a few species extending in ...

'' Röding, 1798 * † '' Austroficopsis'' Stilwell & Zinsmeister, 1992 * † '' Ficopsis'' Conrad, 1866 * † '' Fusoficula'' * † '' Gonysycon'' * '' Thalassocyon'' Barnard, 1960WoRMS (2010). ''Thalassocyon'' Barnard, 1960. Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=447827 on 2010-05-20 ;Genera brought into synonymy: * ''Ficula'' Swainson, 1835 : synonym of Ficus Röding, 1798 * ''Pirula'' Montfort, 1810 : synonym of Ficus Röding, 1798 * ''Pyrula'' Lamarck, 1799 : synonym of Ficus Röding, 1798 * ''Sycotypus'' Gray, 1847 : synonym of Ficus Röding, 1798

Distribution

Shell description

Genera

References

Further reading