''Pugilina tupiniquim'' 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 ...

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, a

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 ...

in the

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 ...

Melongenidae The Melongenidae, the crown conchs and their relatives, are a taxonomic family of large to very large marine gastropods in the superfamily Buccinoidea. MolluscaBase eds. (2021). MolluscaBase. Melongenidae Gill, 1871 (1854). Accessed through: Worl ...

, the crown conches and their allies. This species and its Eastern Atlantic congener, ''

Pugilina morio ''Pugilina morio'', common name : the Giant Hairy Melongena, is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Melongenidae, the crown conches and their allies. Distribution This species is found in the Atlantic Ocean along An ...

'', were once thought to be a single, amphiatlantic entity. They have, however, been recognized as distinct taxa based on anatomical and environmental differences.

Distribution

This species is found in the Western Atlantic Ocean, in

mangrove A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows in coastal saline water, saline or brackish water. The term is also used for tropical coastal vegetation consisting of such species. Mangroves are taxonomically diverse, as a result of convergent evoluti ...

areas along the Brazilian coast, and north to the Caribbean.

Human use

traditional Brazilian medicine Traditional Brazilian medicine (Portuguese: Medicina indígena) includes many native South American elements, and imported African ones. It is predominantly used in areas where indigenous groups and African descendants reside, like in the northea ...

in the

Northeast of Brazil The Northeast Region of Brazil ( pt, Região Nordeste do Brasil; ) is one of the five official and political regions of the country according to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics. Of Brazil's twenty-six states, it comprises n ...

, ''Pugilina tupiniquim'' (formerly referred to as ''Pugilina morio'', an Eastern Atlantic

sister species In phylogenetics, a sister group or sister taxon, also called an adelphotaxon, comprises the closest relative(s) of another given unit in an evolutionary tree. Definition The expression is most easily illustrated by a cladogram: Taxon A and t ...

) is used as zootherapeutical product for the treatment of

sexual impotence Erectile dysfunction (ED), also called impotence, is the type of sexual dysfunction in which the Human penis, penis fails to become or stay Erection, erect during Human sexual activity, sexual activity. It is the most common sexual problem in ...

.Alves R. R. N. 2009. ''Fauna used in popular medicine in Northeast Brazil''.

Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine BioMed Central (BMC) is a United Kingdom-based, for-profit scientific open access publisher that produces over 250 scientific journals. All its journals are published online only. BioMed Central describes itself as the first and largest open a ...

2009, 5:1.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q22285227 Melongenidae Gastropods described in 2015