Rhytididae Explained

Rhytididae is a taxonomic family of medium-sized predatory air-breathing land snails, carnivorous terrestrial pulmonate gastropod molluscs in the superfamily Rhytidoidea.^[1]

This family has two subfamilies:

• Chlamydephorinae Cockerell, 1935 (1903)
• Rhytidinae Pilsbry, 1893

Anatomy

In this family, the number of haploid chromosomes lies between 26 and 35 (according to the values in this table).^[2]

Distribution

This family of land snails has a range which extends from South Africa to New Guinea, some of the higher South Pacific islands, New Zealand^[3] and Australia.

The New Zealand genera include Delos, Delouagapia, Paryphanta, Powelliphanta, Rhytida, Wainuia and Schizoglossa. These, however, probably do not form a monophyletic group, as indicated by their differences in their size, shape and radular morphology.^[4]

Genera

Genera within the family Rhytididae include:

• Amborhytida
• Austrorhytida
• Delos
• Delouagapia
• Diplomphalus
• Echotrida
• Hebridelos
• Macrocycloides
• Namoitena
• Nata
• Natalina
• Occirhenea
• Ougapia
• Paryphanta
• Protorugosa
• Powelliphanta
• Prolesophanta
• Pseudomphalus Ancey, 1882
• Ptychorhytida
• Rhytida
• Rhytidarex
• Saladelos
• Schizoglossa
• Strangesta
• Tasmaphena
• Torresiropa
• Victaphanta
• Vitellidelos
• Wainuia

Life cycle

Eggs of New Zealand's species are generally deposited in leaf mould. Eggs are usually laid from late October to early December, with exception in some species as Powelliphanta spedeni in March.^[5]

Further reading

• Trewick . SA . etal. Taxonomic and conservation status of a newly discovered giant landsnail from Mount Augustus, New Zealand . Conservation Genetics . 2008 . 9 . 6 . 1563–1575 . 10.1007/s10592-007-9495-8 .
• Walker . KJ . etal. A new species of Powelliphanta (Mollusca: Pulmonata: Rhytididae) land snail from the Stockton Plateau, New Zealand. . Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand . 2008 . 38 . 3 . 163–186 . 10.1080/03014220809510553 . free .
  • • • Smith B. J. 1998. Family Rhytididae. In: Beesley P. L., Ross G. J. B. & Wells A. ed. Mollusca: the southern synthesis. Fauna of Australia. Vol. 5. Melbourne, CSIRO Publishing. Pp. 1091–1093.
• Spencer H. G., Brook F. J. & Kenned M. (March 2006) "Phylogeography of Kauri Snails and their allies from Northland, New Zealand (Mollusca: Gastropoda: Rhytididae: Paryphantinae)". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 38(3): 835–842.
• Te Punga M. T. (1953) "The Paryphantidae and a Cook Strait land bridge". New Zealand Journal of Science and Technology 35: 51–63.

Notes and References

1. MolluscaBase eds. (2020). MolluscaBase. Rhytididae Pilsbry, 1893. Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at: http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=816183 on 2020-10-22
2. Barker G. M. (2001). Gastropods on Land: Phylogeny, Diversity and Adaptive Morphology. in Barker G. M. (ed.): The biology of terrestrial molluscs. CABI Publishing, Oxon, UK, 2001, . 1-146, cited pages: 139 and 142.
3. [Arthur William Baden Powell|Powell A. W. B.]
4. Murray Efford, Robyn Howitt and Dianne Gleeson. Phylogenetic relationships of Wainuia (Mollusca : Pulmonata)—biogeography and conservation implications. Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand. September 2002. 32. 3. 445–456. 10.1080/03014223.2002.9517703. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20080906212232/http://www.rsnz.org/publish/jrsnz/2002/022-lo.pdf. 2008-09-06.
5. [A. C. O'Connor|O'Connor A. C.]