Arionidae Temporal range:
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A live individual of the Spanish slug Arion vulgaris, in the wild | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Mollusca |
Class: | Gastropoda |
Subclass: | Heterobranchia |
Order: | Stylommatophora |
Superfamily: | Arionoidea |
Family: |
Arionidae J.E. Gray, 1840 [2] |
Synonyms | |
Tetraspididae Hagenmüller, 1885 |
Arionidae, common name the "roundback slugs" or "round back slugs" are a taxonomic family of air-breathing land slugs, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusks in the superfamily Arionoidea.
The distribution of this family of slugs includes Nearctic, Palearctic and Oriental regions. [1]
Unlike some slugs, European Arionidae have no keel on the back. [1] The caudal mucous pit is above the tip of the tail. [1] The respiratory pore ( pneumostome) is in front of the midpoint of the mantle. [1] The body length is up to 250 mm. [1] The mantle covers only a part of the body and lies in the anterior part. [1]
The jaw is odontognathic, [1] which means it is transversally ribbed. Radular teeth include: central tricuspid, lateral bi- or tricuspid, marginal bicuspid, all having broad bases. [1] Teeth are often accreted. [1] The digestive system forms 2 loops. [1] The heart, in relation to body axis, is titled to the left. [1] The kidney is circular (surrounding aorta). [1] Cephalic retractors tend to divide into separate branches attached independently to the posterior part of pallial complex. [1] The shell is strongly reduced in places, most often completely buried in the mantle, usually of loose crystals or plate-like. [1] Genitalia: the penis is present only in some species, epiphallus is present in nearly all of them. [1] Male copulatory organs are generally reduced, their role being taken over by a well-developed atrium and the epiphallus that produces spermatophores. [1]
In this family, the number of haploid chromosomes lies between 21 and 30 (according to the values in this table). [3]
Family Arionidae has no subfamilies according to the taxonomy of the Gastropoda by Bouchet & Rocroi, 2005.
The type genus of the family is Arion Férussac, 1819
Genera within the family Arionidae include:
The parasites of the Arionidae slugs include the Sciomyzidae.
This article incorporates public domain text from the reference. [1]