''Zonites'' 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 mostly small, 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 ...

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 in the family

Zonitidae Zonitidae, common name the true glass snails, are a family of mostly rather small, air-breathing land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusks in the superfamily Zonitoidea. Zonitidae is the only family in the superfamily Zonitoidea. Th ...

. The genus Zonites, which includes 26 extant species, is distributed in the northeastern Mediterranean area and exhibits significant diversity and endemism.

Description

The

shell Shell may refer to: Architecture and design * Shell (structure), a thin structure ** Concrete shell, a thin shell of concrete, usually with no interior columns or exterior buttresses ** Thin-shell structure Science Biology * Seashell, a hard ou ...

of species in this genus is more or less transparent, subdepressed and contains an umbilicus. The

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 ...

is semilunar and usually lacks teeth. The outer lip is thin and sharp. The animal is elongate and is able to retract completely within its shell. It has a more or less developed

caudal mucous pit The caudal mucous pit, or caudal mucous horn, is an anatomical structure on the tail end of the foot of various land snails and slugs, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusks. The function of this pit is the resorption of mucus when the gast ...

. The mantle lobes are small and not reflected on to the shell. The genital orifice is somewhat distant from the right

tentacle In zoology, a tentacle is a flexible, mobile, and elongated organ present in some species of animals, most of them invertebrates. In animal anatomy, tentacles usually occur in one or more pairs. Anatomically, the tentacles of animals work main ...

. The jaw is marked by a median rostrum. The lateral teeth of the

radula The radula (, ; plural radulae or radulas) is an anatomical structure used by molluscs for feeding, sometimes compared to a tongue. It is a minutely toothed, chitinous ribbon, which is typically used for scraping or cutting food before the food ...

are bicuspidate, while the marginal teeth are sharp and narrowly unicuspidate.

Species

Species within the genus ''Zonites'' include:"Species in genus ''Zonites''"

AnimalBase AnimalBase is a project brought to life in 2004 and is maintained by the University of Göttingen, Germany. The goal of the AnimalBase project is to digitize early zoological literature, provide copyright-free open access to zoological works, and pr ...

, accessed 22 June 2010. * '' Zonites algirus'' (Linnaeus, 1758) - type species * '' Zonites anaphiensis'' Riedel & Mylonas, 1981 * '' Zonites astakidae'' Riedel, 1985 * '' Zonites caricus'' (Roth, 1839) * '' Zonites casius'' Martens, 1889 * '' Zonites chloroticus'' (Pfeiffer, 1851) * '' Zonites embolium'' Fuchs & Käufel, 1936 ** ''Zonites embolium elevatus'' Riedel & Mylonas, 1997 - extinct * '' Zonites euboeicus'' Kobelt, 1878 * '' Zonites festae'' Pollonera, 1916 * '' Zonites graecus'' Kobelt, 1876 * '' Zonites humilis'' Riedel, 1982 * '' Zonites invitus'' Riedel & Mylonas, 1995 * '' Zonites kobelti'' Kobelt, 1898 * '' Zonites labiosus'' Westerlund, 1893 * '' Zonites messenicus'' Zilch, 1965 * '' Zonites nautarum'' Riedel & Mylonas, 1995 * '' Zonites nikariae'' Pfeffer, 1930 * '' Zonites nisyrius'' Riedel & Mylonas, 1997 * '' Zonites oertzeni'' Martens, 1889 * '' Zonites osmanicus'' Riedel, 1987 * '' Zonites parnonensis'' Riedel, 1985 * '' Zonites pergranulatus'' Kobelt, 1878 * '' Zonites rhodius'' Martens, 1889 * '' Zonites santoriniensis'' Riedel & Norris, 1987 - extinctFontaine B., Bouchet P., Van Achterberg K., Alonso-Zarazaga M. A., Araujo R. et al. (2007). "The European union’s 2010 target: Putting rare species in focus." ''Biological Conservation'' 139: 167-185. Table 2 on the page 173.
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* '' Zonites sariae'' Riedel, 1985 * '' Zonites siphnicus'' Fuchs & Käufel, 1936 - extinct * '' Zonites smyrnensis'' (Roth, 1839)

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q8073997 Gastropod genera Taxonomy articles created by Polbot