''Phyllocaulis variegatus'' 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 land

slug Slug, or land slug, is a common name for any apparently shell-less terrestrial gastropod mollusc. The word ''slug'' is also often used as part of the common name of any gastropod mollusc that has no shell, a very reduced shell, or only a smal ...

, a terrestrial

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 ...

in the family

Veronicellidae The Veronicellidae, also known by their common name the leatherleaf slugs, are a family of pulmonate terrestrial slugs. The herbivorous molluscs occur mainly in the tropical and subtropical areas of America, Asia and Africa. They act as intermed ...

Distribution

The distribution of ''Phyllocaulis variegatus'' includes

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

, Argentina, and Uruguay.

Parasites

This species is an intermediate host to ''

Brachylaima ''Brachylaima'' is a genus of trematodes. It has recently been discovered that it can infest the gastrointestinal tract of human beings. Epidemiology and transmission The first documented case of ''Brachylaima'' infestation (known as brachylaim ...

'' species.Thiengo S. C. & Amato S. B. (1995). "''Phyllocaulis variegatus'' (Mollusca: Veronicellidae), a new intermediate host for ''

'' sp. (Digenea: Brachylaimatidae)". ''

Memórias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz ''Memórias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz'' (Portuguese for "Memoirs of the Oswaldo Cruz Institute") is a peer-reviewed open access medical journal covering parasitology, microbiology, and tropical medicine. It was established in 1909 by the Brazilian ...

'' 90(5): 621-622.
HTM

References

Veronicellidae Gastropods described in 1885 {{Veronicellidae-stub