''Spiralinella'' 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 very small

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, pyramidellid

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, or

micromollusk A micromollusk is a shelled mollusk which is extremely small, even at full adult size. The word is usually, but not exclusively, applied to marine mollusks, although in addition, numerous species of land snails and freshwater mollusks also ...

s.Gofas, S.; Rosenberg, G. (2015). Spiralinella Chaster, 1901. Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=743286 on 2015-04-06

Nomenclature

Both this genus and its type species have had a very complicated synonymy. The status of the generic name ''Spiralinella'' in contrast to the names ''Partulida'' and ''Spiralina'' was clarified by Corgan (1973), and the nomenclatorical problems around the type species were discussed by van Aartsen & Gianuzzi-Savelli (1991).

Life habits

Little is known about the biology of the members of this genus. As is true of most members of the

Pyramidellidae Pyramidellidae, common name the pyram family, or pyramid shells, is a voluminous taxonomic family of mostly small and minute ectoparasitic sea snails, marine heterobranch gastropod molluscs. The great majority of species of pyrams are micromol ...

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 ...

'', they are most likely to be

ectoparasite Parasitism is a close relationship between species, where one organism, the parasite, lives on or inside another organism, the host, causing it some harm, and is adapted structurally to this way of life. The entomologist E. O. Wilson has ...

Species

Species within the genus ''Spiralinella'' include: * '' Spiralinella incerta'' (Milaschewich, 1916) * '' Spiralinella marthinae'' (Nofroni & Schander, 1994) * '' Spiralinella muinaiensis'' Saurin, 1962 * ''

Spiralinella spiralis ''Spiralinella spiralis'' is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Pyramidellidae, the pyrams and their allies.Gofas, S. (2015). Spiralinella spiralis (Montagu, 1803). Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species ...

'' (Montagu, 1803) (Type species) (as ''Turbo spiralis'')

References

* * *

External links

''Spiralinella pellucida'' illustration of type species
Pyramidellidae {{Pyramidellidae-stub