Pachychilidae


Pachychilidae, common name pachychilids, is a taxonomic family of freshwater snails, gastropod molluscs in the clade Sorbeoconcha.

Distribution

Pachychilids are freshwater snails with a worldwide distribution in the tropics. Representatives are found in South and Central America, Africa, Madagascar, South and South-east Asia and tropical Australia.

Description

Pachychilids have an operculum, which is concentric and multispiral.

Ecology

All species in the family inhabit freshwater except Faunus ater, which is a brackish water snail found in estuaries and other coastal habitats. Pachychilids are either oviparous, ovoviviparous or viviparous.

Genera

Genera within the family Pachychilidae include:
;Genera brought into synonymy:Acrostoma Brot, 1871: synonym of Paracrostoma Cossmann, 1900Antimelania P. Fischer & Crosse, 1892: synonym of Brotia H. Adams, 1866Brotella Rovereto, 1899: synonym of Paracrostoma Cossmann, 1900
  • Fauninae Cossmann, 1909 : synonym of Pachychilidae P. Fischer & Crosse, 1892Melanatria Bowdich, 1822: synonym of Faunus Montfort, 1810Oxymelania Crosse & P. Fischer, 1892: synonym of Pachychilus I. Lea & H. C. Lea, 1851Pirena Lamarck, 1822: synonym of Faunus Montfort, 1810Sphaeromelania Rovereto, 1899: synonym of Pachychilus I. Lea & H. C. Lea, 1851Wanga Chen, 1943: synonym of Brotia H. Adams, 1866

Cladogram

A cladogram based on sequences of mitochondrial 16S ribosomal RNA sequences showing phylogenic relations of Pachychilidae: