Latia

Taxobox
name = "Latia"


image_caption =
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Mollusca
classis = Gastropoda
subclassis = Orthogastropoda
superordo = Heterobranchia
ordo = Pulmonata
subordo = Basommatophora
familia = Latiidae
familia_authority = Hutton, 1882
genus = "Latia"
genus_authority = Gray, 1850
subdivision_ranks = Species
subdivision = See text.

"Latia" is a genus of very small, air-breathing freshwater snails or limpets, aquatic pulmonate gastropod molluscs in the family Latiidae.

This is the only genus in the family Latiidae, in other words Latiidae is a monotypic family. This genus has sometimes been placed instead in a larger family of freshwater limpets, the Ancylidae.

(Note: Gastropod taxonomy has been in flux for more than half a century, and this is especially true currently, because of new research in molecular phylogeny. Because of all the on-going changes, different reliable sources can yield very different classifications. This is especially true within groups which are poorly understood in general.)

Distribution

This genus is endemic to the North Island of New Zealand.

Habitat

Members of the genus are found attached to stones in clean running streams and rivers.

hell description

The shell of this limpet varies from 6 mm to 12 mm in maximum dimension. The apex of the shell is strongly hooked. The shell color is dark. The shell has a small internal "deck" across one end like a "Crepidula" species.

Life habits

These animals have a pallial lung, as do all pulmonate snails, but they also have a false gill or "pseudobranch". This serves as a gill as, in their non-tidal habitat, these limpets never reach the surface for air.

These freshwater limpets are capable of secreting a bioluminescent substance when disturbed.

pecies

* "Latia climoi" Starobogatov, 1986
* "Latia lateralis" (Gould, 1852)
* "Latia neritoides" Gray, 1850

References

* Powell A. W. B., "New Zealand Mollusca", William Collins Publishers Ltd, Auckland, New Zealand 1979 ISBN 0-00-216906-1
* [http://www.gastropods.com/Taxon_pages/Family_LATIIDAE.html]
* [http://www.taxonomy.nl/Main/Classification/38484.htm]
* [http://wwmcat.it/malaco/family/latiidae.htm]
* [http://www.doc.govt.nz/upload/documents/conservation/native-animals/invertebrates/003-snails-i.pdf NZ Govt]