Zonitidae,

common name In biology, a common name of a taxon or organism (also known as a vernacular name, English name, colloquial name, country name, popular name, or farmer's name) is a name that is based on the normal language of everyday life; and is often contrast ...

the true glass snails, are a

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 ...

of mostly rather 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 superfamily Zonitoidea. Zonitidae is the only family in the superfamily Zonitoidea. The family's

type genus In biological taxonomy, the type genus is the genus which defines a biological family and the root of the family name. Zoological nomenclature According to the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, "The name-bearing type of a nominal f ...

is ''

Zonites ''Zonites'' is a genus of mostly small, air-breathing land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusks in the family Zonitidae. The genus Zonites, which includes 26 extant species, is distributed in the northeastern Mediterranean area an ...

'', established by

Pierre Denys de Montfort Pierre Denys de Montfort, also sometimes spelled "Pierre Dénys de Montfort", (1766–1820) was a French naturalist, in particular a malacologist, remembered today for his pioneering inquiries into the existence of the gigantic octopuses. He wa ...

in 1810. This family has no subfamilies (according to the taxonomy of the Gastropoda by Bouchet & Rocroi, 2005).

Distribution

The distribution of the Zonitidae encompasses the western

Palearctic The Palearctic or Palaearctic is the largest of the eight biogeographic realms of the Earth. It stretches across all of Eurasia north of the foothills of the Himalayas, and North Africa. The realm consists of several bioregions: the Euro-Sibe ...

Shell description

The spiral, heliciform shells of these snails are flattened in shape with a very low

spire A spire is a tall, slender, pointed structure on top of a roof of a building or tower, especially at the summit of church steeples. A spire may have a square, circular, or polygonal plan, with a roughly conical or pyramidal shape. Spires are ...

. The shell is perforate or umbilicate. The lip of 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 simple, lacking thickened margin. These shells are more or less transparent as if made of glass, hence the popular name "glass snails". The shells are colorless or of an amber to brownish color.

Biology

Some snails in genera within this family create and use

love dart A love dart (also known as a gypsobelum, shooting darts, or just as darts) is a sharp, calcareous or chitinous dart which some hermaphroditic land snails and slugs create. Love darts are both formed and stored internally in a dart sac. These ...

s as part of their mating behavior. In this family, the number of

haploid Ploidy () is the number of complete sets of chromosomes in a cell, and hence the number of possible alleles for autosomal and pseudoautosomal genes. Sets of chromosomes refer to the number of maternal and paternal chromosome copies, respectively ...

chromosome A chromosome is a long DNA molecule with part or all of the genetic material of an organism. In most chromosomes the very long thin DNA fibers are coated with packaging proteins; in eukaryotic cells the most important of these proteins are ...

s lies between 21 and 25 and also lies between 31 and 35, but other values are also possible (according to the values in this table).Barker G. M.: Gastropods on Land: ''Phylogeny, Diversity and Adaptive Morphology''. in Barker G. M. (ed.):
The biology of terrestrial molluscs
'. CABI Publishing, Oxon, UK, 2001, . 1–146, cited pages: 139 and 142.

Ecology

These snails live in damp places under stones and similar objects. The true glass snails are usually

nocturnal Nocturnality is an animal behavior characterized by being active during the night and sleeping during the day. The common adjective is "nocturnal", versus diurnal meaning the opposite. Nocturnal creatures generally have highly developed sens ...

Genera

Genera Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nomenclat ...

within the family Zonitidae include: * ''

Aegopis ''Aegopis'' is a genus of air-breathing land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusks in the family Zonitidae Zonitidae, common name the true glass snails, are a family of mostly rather small, air-breathing land snails, terrestri ...

'' Fitzinger, 1833 * ''

Aegopinella ''Aegopinella'' is a genus of small, air-breathing land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusks in the family Gastrodontidae Gastrodontidae is a family of air-breathing land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusks in the sup ...

'' Lindholm, 1927 * ''

Allaegopis ''Allaegopis'' is a genus of gastropods belonging to 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 superfam ...

'' Riedel, 1979 * '' Balcanodiscus'' Riedel & Urbanski, 1964 * '' Brazieria'' Ancey, 1887 * '' Doraegopis'' Riedel, 1982 * '' Eopolita'' Pollonera, 1916 *'' Glyphyalinia'' Martens, 1892 * ''

Gollumia ''Gollumia'' is a genus of gastropods belonging to the family Pristilomatidae Pristilomatidae is a taxonomic family of air-breathing land snails, terrestrial gastropod mollusks in the superfamily Gastrodontoidea. According to the 2005 tax ...

'' Riedel, 1988 * '' Meledella'' Sturany, 1908 * ''

Mesomphix ''Mesomphix'' is a genus of terrestrial gastropods belonging to the family Gastrodontidae. MolluscaBase eds. (2021). MolluscaBase. Mesomphix Rafinesque, 1819. Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at: http://marinespecies.org/aphia.p ...

'' Rafinesque, 1819 * '' Ogaridiscus'' Dall, 1877Turgeon, D.D., J.F. Quinn, Jr., A.E. Bogan, E.V. Coan, F.G. Hochberg, W.G. Lyons, P.M. Mikkelsen, R.J. Neves, C.F.E. Roper, G. Rosenberg, B. Roth, A. Scheltema, F.G. Thompson, M. Vecchione, and J.D. Williams. 1998. ''Common and scientific names of aquatic invertebrates from the United States and Canada: Mollusks''. 2nd Edition. American Fisheries Society Special Publication 26, Bethesda, Maryland: 526 pp. * '' Paraegopis'' Hesse, 1910 * ''

Paravitrea ''Paravitrea'' is a genus of small, air-breathing land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusks in the family Zonitidae Zonitidae, common name the true glass snails, are a family of mostly rather small, air-breathing land snails, ...

'' Pilsbry, 1898 * ''

Retinella ''Retinella'' is a genus of air-breathing land snails, terrestrial molluscs, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusks in the family Gastrodontidae.MolluscaBase eds. (2022). MolluscaBase. Retinella P. Fischer, 1877. Accessed through: World Registe ...

'' Fischer, 1877 * '' Thasiogenes'' Riedel, 1998 * '' Troglaegopis'' Riedel & Radja, 1983 * '' Turcozonites'' Riedel, 1987 *'' Ventridens'' Binney & Bland, 1869 * ''

'' Montfort, 1810 – type genus

Cladogram

The following

cladogram A cladogram (from Greek ''clados'' "branch" and ''gramma'' "character") is a diagram used in cladistics to show relations among organisms. A cladogram is not, however, an evolutionary tree because it does not show how ancestors are related to d ...

shows the

phylogenic In biology, phylogenetics (; from Greek φυλή/ φῦλον [] "tribe, clan, race", and wikt:γενετικός, γενετικός [] "origin, source, birth") is the study of the evolutionary history and relationships among or within groups o ...

relationships of this family to other families in the

limacoid clade The Limacoidei is a taxonomic infraorder of air-breathing land snails, semislugs and slugs, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod molluscs in the suborder Helicina Distribution The original ancestral area of limacoid families is thought to be the ...

:Hausdorf B. (2000). "Biogeography of the Limacoidea sensu lato (Gastropoda: Stylommatophora): Vicariance Events and Long-Distance Dispersal". ''

Journal of Biogeography The ''Journal of Biogeography'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal in biogeography that was established in 1974. It covers aspects of spatial, ecological, and historical biogeography. The founding editor-in-chief was David Watts, followed by J ...

'' 27(2): 379–390.
JSTOR