Philomycidae

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Philomycidae
Philomycus carolinianus from W. G. Binney, 1878
Philomycus carolinianus from W. G. Binney, 1878 [1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Gastropoda
Order: Pulmonata
Family: Philomycidae
Genera

See text.

The Philomycidae are a family of slugs, snails without shells or with only shell remnants, that are found in China, Japan, the East Indies, central and eastern North America, and through Central America into northern South America.

Members of this family most obviously differ from related slugs in that their mantles are broadly rounded and very large, covering the entire body. (In mollusks, the mantle consists of the tissues that normally generate the shell. Being mostly or entirely without shells, most slugs have reduced mantles.)

Pilsbry (1948) states that the enormously developed mantle, the large empty shell sac, and the insertions of the free retractor muscles along the margins of the foot cavity, instead of dorsally as in the Arionidae are special to the Philomycidae. [2]

A further anatomical oddity of the group, shared with certain helicid and zonitid snails, is their use of calcareous darts to stimulate a partner during mating. [3] [2]

[edit] Genera

  • Incilaria
  • Megapallifera
  • Meghimatium
  • Pallifera
  • Philomycus


[edit] References

  1. ^ Binney, William G. (1878). The Terrestrial Air-Breathing Mollusks of the United States and Adjacent Territories of North America. Vol. 5 (plates). Bull. Mus. Comparative Zool., Harvard. Plate 63.
  2. ^ a b Pilsbry, Henry A. 1948. Land Mollusca of North America (North of Mexico). Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, Monograph 3, vol. 2(2): 748-750.
  3. ^ http://snailstales.blogspot.com/2005/04/dissection-selection-philomycus.html "Snail's Tales" blog of Aydin Örstan