Plesiocystiscinae

Taxobox
name = PLESIOCYSTISCINAE

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image_width = 240px
image_caption = A live animal of this subfamily
regnum = Animalia
subregnum = Eumetazoa
superphylum = Protostomia
phylum = Mollusca
classis = Gastropoda
subclassis = Orthogastropoda
superordo = Caenogastropoda
ordo = Sorbeoconcha
subordo = Hypsogastropoda
infraordo = Neogastropoda
superfamilia = Muricoidea
familia = Cystiscidae
subfamilia = Plesiocystiscinae
subfamilia_authority = Coovert and Coovert, 1995

Plesiocystiscinae is a subfamily of minute sea predatory sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks or micromollusks in the infraorder Neogastropoda.

The genus name from which this subfamily name is taken is derived from the Greek "plesios", near, in the sense of plesiomorphic, of characteres near the ancestor, combined with "Cystiscus" the name of another closely related genus.

Sometimes the genus in this subfamily is more simply left in the larger family Marginellidae.

(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.)

Shell description

Shell minute to small, white, hyaline; last whorl rapidly expanded then lip abruptly swept posteriorly giving characteristic shape; spire flat to low; lip thickned posteriorly, smooth, lacking lirae or denticulation, external varix absent; siphonal notch absent; posterior notch absent; columella multiplicate with combined total of 3-8 plications plus parietal lirae; internal whorls cystiscid type.

Description of soft parts

Animal tentacles and siphon moderately long; mantle translucent, in some species not readily extending over external shell surface; foot relatively narrow. Internal anatomy unknown.

Genus in this subfamily

* "Plesiocystiscus" Coovert and Coovert, 1994

References

* 1995. Revision of the Supraspecific Classification of Marginelliform Gastrapods. The Nautilus 109(2 & 3):43-110. (latest family review)