''Prestonella'' is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

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 ...

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 ...

mollusc 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 esti ...

s in the family

Bothriembryontidae Bothriembryontidae is a family of air-breathing land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusks in the superfamily Orthalicoidea. Taxonomy This family has been named Placostylidae and had no subfamilies (according to the taxonomy of th ...

.Breure A. S. H. & Romero P. (2012). "Support and surprises: molecular phylogeny of the land snail superfamily Orthalicoidea using a three-locus gene analysis with a divergence time analysis and ancestral area reconstruction (Gastropoda: Stylommatophora)". '' Archiv für Molluskenkunde: International Journal of Malacology'' 141(1): 1-20. .

Taxonomy

Prestonellidae (as a not available name) was tentatively placed as a synonym of

Aillyidae Aillyidae is a family of air-breathing land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusks in the informal group Sigmurethra. Aillyidae is the only family in the superfamily Aillyoidea. This family and the genus is named in honor of Swedish m ...

in the taxonomy of the Gastropoda by Bouchet & Rocroi, 2005. ''Prestonella'' is the type genus of the family Prestonellidae, but Prestonellidae is not an

available name In zoological nomenclature, an available name is a scientific name for a taxon of animals that has been published conforming to all the mandatory provisions of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature for the establishment of a zoological ...

, because it has no diagnosis. ''Prestonella'' was considered as the only genus in the family Prestonellidae. Herbert (2007) has classified ''Prestonella'' in

Bulimulidae Bulimulidae is a taxonomic family of medium-sized to large, air-breathing, tropical and sub-tropical land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod molluscs in the superfamily Orthalicoidea.MolluscaBase eds. (2020). MolluscaBase. Bulimulidae Tryon, ...

sensu lato ''Sensu'' is a Latin word meaning "in the sense of". It is used in a number of fields including biology, geology, linguistics, semiotics, and law. Commonly it refers to how strictly or loosely an expression is used in describing any particular co ...

'' within Orthalicoidea. Herbert & Mitchell (2009) have classified ''Prestonella'', for which the phylogenetic relationships were previously unknown, in the superfamily

Orthalicoidea The Orthalicoidea are a superfamily of air-breathing land snails, terrestrial gastropod mollusks in the infraorder Orthalicoidei of the suborder HelicinaMolluscaBase eds. (2021). MolluscaBase. Simpulopsidae Schileyko, 1999. Accessed through: Wo ...

.Herbert D. G. & Mitchell A. (2008). "Phylogenetic relationships of the enigmatic land snail genus ''Prestonella'': the missing African element in the Gondwanan superfamily Orthalicoidea (Mollusca: Stylommatophora)". ''

Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society The ''Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society'' is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal covering zoology published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Linnean Society. The editor-in-chief is Maarten Christenhusz (Linnean Society). ...

'' 96(1): 203-221. . Breure et al. (2010) moved ''Prestonella'' to Placostylidae,Breure A. S. H., Groenenberg D. S. J. & Schilthuizen M. (2010). "New insights in the phylogenetic relations within the Orthalicoidea (Gastropoda, Stylommatophora) based on 28S sequence data". ''

Basteria ''Basteria'' is a bimonthly peer-reviewed scientific journal published by the Netherlands Malacological Society, covering research on molluscs. It was established in 1936 and is now published mostly in English. Since 2000, the editor-in-chief has b ...

'' 74(1-3): 25-31. that Breure & Romero (2012) renamed to Bothriembryontidae. Prestonellinae was formally described as a new subfamily within Bothriembryontidae in 2016.Bruggen A. C. van, Herbert D. G. & Breure A. S. H. (2016). "Prestonellinae – validation of the name as a new subfamily of Bothriembryontidae (Mollusca, Gastropoda, Orthalicoidea)". ''

Zootaxa ''Zootaxa'' is a peer-reviewed scientific mega journal for animal taxonomists. It is published by Magnolia Press (Auckland, New Zealand). The journal was established by Zhi-Qiang Zhang in 2001 and new issues are published multiple times a week. ...

'' 4084: 590–592. Prestonellinae contains three genera: ''Prestonella'' Connolly, 1929, '' Discoleus'' Breure, 1978 and '' Plectostylus'' Beck, 1837. ''Prestonella'' is the type genus of the subfamily Prestonellinae.

Distribution

This genus is endemic to

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

and

Lesotho Lesotho ( ), officially the Kingdom of Lesotho, is a country landlocked country, landlocked as an Enclave and exclave, enclave in South Africa. It is situated in the Maloti Mountains and contains the Thabana Ntlenyana, highest mountains in Sou ...

.Govender V. (2007). "Patterns of Distribution, Diversity and Endemism of Terrestrial Molluscs in South Africa". Thesis. School of Biological and Conservation Sciences,

University of KwaZulu-Natal The University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) is a university with five campuses in the province of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. It was formed on 1 January 2004 after the merger between the University of Natal and the University of Durban-Westville. ...

. 219 pp
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It occurs in the southern edge of the

Great Escarpment The Great Escarpment is a major topographical feature in Africa that consists of steep slopes from the high central Southern African plateauAtlas of Southern Africa. (1984). p. 13. Reader's Digest Association, Cape Town downward in the directio ...

in southern Africa. ''Prestonella'' has a

relict A relict is a surviving remnant of a natural phenomenon. Biology A relict (or relic) is an organism that at an earlier time was abundant in a large area but now occurs at only one or a few small areas. Geology and geomorphology In geology, a r ...

distribution in the south of the southern Africa and it is the only

Recent The Holocene ( ) is the current geological epoch. It began approximately 11,650 cal years Before Present (), after the Last Glacial Period, which concluded with the Holocene glacial retreat. The Holocene and the preceding Pleistocene together ...

African member of Bulimulidae ''s.l.''Fearon J. L., Barker N. P. & Herbert D. G. (2011). "The genetic diversity and conservation biology of the rare terrestrial snail genus ''Prestonella''". ''Proceedings of the Congresses of the Southern African Society for Systematic Biology Organised by the Southern African Society for Systematic Biology Grahamstown 19-21st January 2011'', , page 36
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Its distribution is highly fragmented.

Ecology

''Prestonella'' lives in

forest A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...

and Nama

Karoo The Karoo ( ; from the Afrikaans borrowing of the South Khoekhoe !Orakobab or Khoemana word ''ǃ’Aukarob'' "Hardveld") is a semi-desert natural region of South Africa. No exact definition of what constitutes the Karoo is available, so its ext ...

(semi-desert) biomes. It is very specialized in habitat requirements and it inhabits only two types of relictual

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

s: vertical-rocks above running water and moist shaded cliffs facing to the south. ''Prestonella'' occurs in the elevation 838–1680 m above sea level. There are two rainfall seasons in the area per year. It has been found in 2011, that

genetic diversity Genetic diversity is the total number of genetic characteristics in the genetic makeup of a species, it ranges widely from the number of species to differences within species and can be attributed to the span of survival for a species. It is dis ...

in the populations of ''Prestonella'' is lower in dryer areas.

Global warming In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...

would probably have serious negative impact on ''Prestonella'' species.

Species

There are threeHerbert D. G. (2007). "Revision of the genus ''Prestonella'' (Mollusca: Gastropoda: Orthalicoidea: Bulimulidae s. l.), a distinctive component of the African land snail fauna". ''

African Invertebrates ''African Invertebrates'' is a peer-reviewed open access scientific journal that covers the taxonomy, systematics, biogeography, ecology, conservation, and palaeontology of Afrotropical invertebrates, whether terrestrial, freshwater, or marine. I ...

'' 48(2): 1-19
abstract
. species in the genus ''Prestonella'': * '' Prestonella bowkeri'' (Sowerby, 1889) - type species, synonym: ''Buliminus bowkeri''Schileyko A. A. (1999). "Treatise on Recent terrestrial pulmonate molluscs. Part 3: Partulidae, Aillyidae, Bulimulidae, Orthalicidae, Megaspiridae, Urocoptidae". ''Ruthenica'' (Suppl. 2): 272. * '' Prestonella nuptialis'' (Melvill & Ponsonby, 1894) * '' Prestonella quadingensis'' - validity of this species is doubtful. Its habitat details are unknown.

References

External links

summaries of 2004-2009 papers and a photo of ''Prestonella bowkeri''
{{Taxonbar, from=Q7242041 Endemic fauna of South Africa Bothriembryontidae