Actophila
shell of Ophicardelus ornata (Ferrusac, 1821)
Melampoidea - Melampidae
found in mangrove mud, Eastern Australia. Length of shell, 12 mm
Included here are a small group of pulmonates that might be closely related to the
Stylommatophora, or even possibly ancestral to them. Their taxonomic position has varied over the past decades. The Ellobioidea are included under the Order Basommatophora in
Macpherson & Gabriel
(1962), and the superfamily Ellobioidea in Salvini-Plawen's
(1980) order Archaeopulmonata by Vaught
(1989). But Jeffery 2001 includes the Ellobioidea in the clade Actophila, in turn a subclade of the Eupulmonata (which also includes the Trimusculiformes and the Stylommatophora.
These animals inhabit salt marshes and mangroves near the sea. Most members of the family are tropical. The shell is rather solid, the aperture contracted by columnella teeth, although the inner walls of the shell are usually absorbed, leaving a single
cavity. Macpherson
& Gabriel (1962).
The following classification is from Jeffery
(2001).
Melampoidea [=Ellobioidea & Auriculoidea]
Melampidae Stimpson, 1851 [=Ellobiidae Adams & Adams, 1854/5]
Carychiidae Jeffreys, 1830
Leucophytiidae ?author
Mesocochliopidae Yu, 1987
Zaptychiidae Zilch, 1959
Links
Belongkeng Family Ellobiidae - Ellobiidae in Singapore
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page uploaded 20 December 2002
checked ATW031019
page by M. Alan Kazlev
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