Pleurocera

Pleurocera
Apertural view of a shell of Pleurocera acuta
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Gastropoda
Subclass: Caenogastropoda
Order: incertae sedis
Superfamily: Cerithioidea
Family: Pleuroceridae
Genus: Pleurocera
Rafinesque, 1818
Synonyms
  • Ceriphasia Swainson, 1840
  • Cerithidea (Ceriphasia) Swainson, 1840
  • Oxytrema Rafinesque, 1819
  • Pleurocera (Strephobasis) I. Lea, 1861
  • Pleuroceras Cossmann, 1909
  • Pleurocerus
  • Strephobasis I. Lea, 1861
  • Strepoma Haldeman, 1864
  • Telescopella Gray, 1847
  • Trypanostoma I. Lea, 1862

Pleurocera is a genus of freshwater snails with an operculum, aquatic gastropod molluscs in the family Pleuroceridae.

Pleurocera is the type genus of that family.

Distribution

All members of the genus Pleurocera are native to eastern North America.

Description

All of the species in this genus have thick-walled high-spired shells, and some attain a length of over 4 cm (1.6 in). The shape of the shell is elongate-conic or cylindrical. The sculpture of the shell is often carinate or costate. The shell of larger species sometimes develops sculpturing and a small siphonal canal or siphonal notch at the base of the aperture.

Opercula are paucispiral and corneous, but may be vestigial in some species, not completely closing the aperture.

The soft parts of the animal usually have a gray or brown coloration, commonly speckled with orange. The similar genus Juga has a seminal receptacle, but Pleurocera has no seminal receptacle.

Species

Species within the genus Pleurocera include:


Species brought into synonymy
Nomen nudum

Pleurocera gonula Rafinesque, 1831 (nomen dubium)

Ecology

Most species inhabit larger rivers.

Pleurocera snails are dioecious.

References

  1. ↑ Rafinesque (1818). Amer. mon. Mag. 3(5): 355.
  2. 1 2 3 MolluscaBase eds. (2021). MolluscaBase. Pleurocera Rafinesque, 1818. Accessed at: http://www.molluscabase.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=820483 on 2023-10-31
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Dillon R. T. (2011). "Robust Shell Phenotype is a Local Response to Stream Size in the Genus Pleurocera (Rafinesque, 1818)". Malacologia 53(2): 265-277. doi:10.4002/040.053.0205.
  4. ↑ "Pleurocera". Integrated Taxonomic Information System. Retrieved 1 November 2023.
  5. ↑ Melville R. V. (1981). "Opinion 1195. Pleurocera Rafinesque, 1818 (Gastropoda): The type species is Pleurocerus acutus Rafinesque in Blainville, 1824". Bulletin of Zoological Nomenclature 38: 259–265.