Palaeos		Gastropoda: Pulmonata
Mollusca		Acteophila

Pulmonata

GASTROPODA  
|--Caenogastropoda
`--Heterobranchia
   |--Opisthobranchia
   |
   `--PULMONATA
      |==Basommatophora
      `--+--Stylommatophora
         `--+--Systellommatophora 
            `==Acteophila  

Acteophila

Heterobranchia
|--Opisthobranchia
`--PULMONATA  
   |--ACTOPHILA  
   |--SYSTELLOMMATOPHORA  
   `--+--BASOMMATOPHORA  
      `--STYLOMMATOPHORA  

Introduction

shell of Ophicardelus ornata (Ferrusac, 1821)
Melampoidea - Melampidae
found in mangrove mud, Eastern Australia. Length of shell, 12 mm

Ophicardelus ornata image © Capricornica Publications Natural History Books

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 Acteophila, 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