Vertiginidae

Vertiginidae
Temporal range: Upper Paleocene-recent
A live individual of Vertigo moulinsiana
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Gastropoda
Order: Stylommatophora
Superfamily: Pupilloidea
Family: Vertiginidae
Fitzinger, 1833
Diversity
93–95 species

Vertiginidae, common name the whorl snails, is a family of small, air-breathing land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod molluscs or micromollusks in the superfamily Pupilloidea.

Distribution

The distribution of the Vertiginidae is in the Northern Hemisphere: North America (60 species), Eurasia (30 species), North and central Africa (3-5 species). That gives a total of approximately 93-95 species.

Ecology

Snails in this family inhabit habitats ranging from forests to semi-open and open habitats with various different kinds of substrate cover, vegetation and humidity. They feed on microflora - bacteria and fungi - growing on dead and living plants.

Taxonomy

The following three subfamilies were recognized in the taxonomy of Bouchet & Rocroi (2005):

Genera

Genera in the family Vertiginidae include:

Subfamily Vertigininae

Tribe Vertiginini

Subfamily Nesopupinae
Subfamily ?

References

This article incorporates public domain text from the reference.

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Family summary for Vertiginidae. AnimalBase, last modified 03-09-2006, accessed 23 June 2009.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Bouchet, Philippe; Rocroi, Jean-Pierre; Frýda, Jiri; Hausdorf, Bernard; Ponder, Winston; Valdés, Ángel & Warén, Anders (2005). "Classification and nomenclator of gastropod families". Malacologia. 47 (1–2). Hackenheim, Germany: ConchBooks: 1–397. ISBN 3-925919-72-4. ISSN 0076-2997.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: periodical has ISBN (link)
  3. 1 2 "Mollusca" Archived July 18, 2011, at the Wayback Machine. Diversidad Biológica Cubana, accessed 23 March 2011.