Ovulidae

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Ovulidae

Living Cyphoma gibbosum

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Mollusca
Class:	Gastropoda
Subclass:	Orthogastropoda
Superorder:	Caenogastropoda
Order:	Sorbeoconcha
Suborder:	Hypsogastropoda
Infraorder:	Littorinimorpha
Superfamily:	Cypraeoidea
Family:	Ovulidae Fleming, 1822

Genera

See text.

Ovulidae, common names the ovulids, cowry allies or false cowries, is a family of small to large predatory or parasitic sea snails, marine gastropod molluscs in the superfamily Cypraeoidea, the cowries and cowry allies.

1 Distribution
2 Habitat
3 Shell decription
4 Genera
5 References

[edit] Distribution

The ovulids are mostly tropical and subtropical, but a few species live in temperate waters.

[edit] Habitat

Ovulids live on, and eat, soft corals and sea fans, and they are usually regarded as ectoparasites of these sessile colonial organisms.

[edit] Shell decription

Ovulids mostly have smooth shiny shells with a very long aperture and a very low or invisible spire. The shell is often white, but in some species the shell is pink or reddish.

In a few species of ovulids, the shell quite closely resembles that of cowries. However in many other species, the shells are so elongate that they do not so much resemble the shells of that closely-related family.