Rissoellidae

Taxobox
name = Rissoellidae


image_caption =
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Mollusca
classis = gastropoda
ordo = Heterostropha
familia = Rissoellidae
familia_authority = Gray, 1850
subdivision_ranks = Genera
subdivision = See text.

Rissoellidae are a family of minute sea snails, marine gastropod molluscs in the order Heterostropha.

Distribution

World-wide but sporadic.

Description

These shells are minute, fragile, glass-like, of simple elongate-ovate shape, found mostly living on seaweed. The animal is distinctive in having a pair of tentacle-like processes, additional to a pair of true tentacles. The eyes are in the middle of the bases of the tentacles. The operculum is basically oval, but shaped to fit the aperture, and there is a moderate to strong medial peg that is buttressed on the inner face. The radula is variable, and the teeth are relatively large, a central, a lateral, and one, two, or no marginals.

Genera within the family Rissoellidae

* "Heterorissoa"
* "Jeffreysia"
* "Rissoella" Gray, 1847

References

*
* Powell A. W. B., "New Zealand Mollusca", William Collins Publishers Ltd, Auckland, New Zealand 1979 ISBN 0-00-216906-1
* [http://zipcodezoo.com/Key/Rissoellidae_Family.asp ZipCodeZoo]