Staffordiidae

Staffordiidae is a family of air-breathing land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusks in the superfamily Staffordioidea (according to the taxonomy of the Gastropoda by Bouchet & Rocroi, 2005).

Staffordiidae
A drawing of an apertural view of a shell of Staffordia daflaensis
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Mollusca
Class:
Gastropoda
(unranked):
clade Heterobranchia
clade Euthyneura
clade Panpulmonata
clade Eupulmonata
clade Stylommatophora
informal group Sigmurethra
clade limacoid clade
Superfamily:
Staffordioidea

Thiele, 1931
Family:
Staffordiidae

Thiele, 1931[1]
Genera

See text

Staffordiidae is the only family in the superamily Staffordioidea. This family has no subfamilies (according to the taxonomy of the Gastropoda by Bouchet & Rocroi, 2005).

Staffordiidae is a poorly understood[2] family, because it occurs only in the Dafla Hills area of India. The fauna and flora of that area has not been researched sufficiently.[2]

Various sources consider the family Staffordiidae as part of Dyakiidae[3] or Ariophantidae/Dyakiinae.[4]

Distribution

The distribution of the Staffordiidae includes only India in the Dafla Hills.[2]

This area is close to northern margin of the Indian plate.[2] The historical area of origin of the Staffordiidae has not been researched because the coastal area in southern Asia where it is found became uninhabitable[2] after the Indian Plate and Eurasian Plate collided 50 to 55 million years ago. The original ancestral area of limacoid families is thought to be the Palaearctic region and south-eastern Asia.[2] Thus, it has been hypothesized that the Staffordiidae colonized its current area from the southern margin of the Asian part of the Eurasian Plate during the Oligocene period.[2]

Genera

Genera within the family Staffordiidae include:

The generic name Staffordia is in honor of Brigadier-General Stafford, who was in command of the punitive force which entered the Dafla Hills for the first time in the winter of 1874–1875.[5]

The foot of Staffordia is pointed.[5] The peripodial margin is simple with a narrow pale margin.[5] There are small right and left shell-lobes.[5]

Reproductive system of Staffordia: the dart-sac is small, globose, with a long cord-like attachment to a coronal gland.[5] The penis is simple.[5] The spermatheca is long.[5]

The radula of Staffordia has aculeate lateral teeth.[5]

Comparison of shells of three Staffordia species:

Staffordia daflaensis
type specimen of Staffordia staffordi is juvenile
type specimen of Staffordia toruputuensis is juvenile

Cladogram

Staffordiidae is considered a sister group of all other families in the limacoid clade.[2]

The following cladogram shows the phylogenic relationships of this family and superfamily to the other families within the limacoid clade:[2]

 limacoid clade 
 Staffordioidea 

Staffordiidae

 
 
 
 Dyakioidea 

Dyakiidae

 
 Gastrodontoidea 
 

Pristilomatidae

 
 
 

Chronidae

 
 
 

Euconulidae

 
 

Trochomorphidae

 
 
 
 

Gastrodontidae

 
 

Oxychilidae

 
 
 
 
 
 
 Parmacelloidea 
 

Trigonochlamydidae

 
 

Parmacellidae

 
 

Milacidae

 
 
 
 
 Zonitoidea 

Zonitidae

 
 Helicarionoidea 
 

Helicarionidae

 
 
 

Ariophantidae

 
 

Urocyclidae

 
 
 
 
 Limacoidea 
 

Vitrinidae

 
 
 

Boettgerillidae

 
 
 

Limacidae

 
 

Agriolimacidae

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

References

This article incorporates public domain text from the reference.[5]

  1. Thiele J. (1931). Handbuch der systematischen Weichtierkunde Fischer, Jena, 1(2): 632.
  2. Hausdorf B. (2000). "Biogeography of the Limacoidea sensu lato (Gastropoda: Stylommatophora): Vicariance Events and Long-Distance Dispersal". Journal of Biogeography 27(2): 379–390. doi:10.1046/j.1365-2699.2000.00403.x, JSTOR.
  3. Barker G. M. (2001) Gastropods on Land: Phylogeny, Diversity and Adaptive Morphology. 1–146. In: Barker G. M. (ed.) (2001) The biology of terrestrial molluscs. CABI Publishing, Oxon, UK, cited pages: 139–144. ISBN 0-85199-318-4.
  4. Ramakrishna, Dey A. & Mitra S. C. (PDF created 6 April 2010). "Checklist of Indian Land Mollusca" Archived 17 September 2013 at the Wayback Machine. Zoological Survey of India. accessed 30 June 2010. 65 pp.
  5. Godwin-Austen H. H. (1907). Land and freshwater mollusca of India, including South Arabia, Baluchistan, Afghanistan, Kashmir, Nepal, Burma, Pegu, Tenasserim, Malaya Peninsula, Ceylon and other islands of the Indian Ocean; Supplementary to Masers Theobald and Hanley's Conchologica Indica. Taylor and Francis, London. 2: page 184, plate CXIII.

Further reading
  • Schileyko A. A. (2003). "Treatise on recent terrestrial pulmonate mollusks. 10. Ariophantidae, Ostracolethaidae, Ryssotidae, Milacidae, Dyakiidae, Staffordiidae, Gastrodontidae, Zonitidae, Daudebardiidae, Parmacellidae". Ruthenica, Supplement 2. 1309–1466.
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