Vertiginidae


Vertiginidae, common name the whorl snails, is a family of small, air-breathing land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod molluscs or micromollusks in the superfamily Pupilloidea.

Distribution

The distribution of the Vertiginidae is in the Northern Hemisphere: North America, Eurasia, North and central Africa. That gives a total of approximately 93-95 species.

Ecology

Snails in this family inhabit habitats ranging from forests to semi-open and open habitats with various different kinds of substrate cover, vegetation and humidity. They feed on microflora - bacteria and fungi - growing on dead and living plants.

Taxonomy

The following three subfamilies were recognized in Taxonomy of the [Gastropoda (Bouchet & Rocroi, 2005)|the taxonomy of Bouchet & Rocroi (2005)]:
  • Subfamily Vertigininae Fitzinger, 1833
  • * Tribe Vertiginini Fitzinger, 1833
  • * Tribe Truncatellinini Steenberg, 1925 - synonyms: Truncatellininae; Columellinae Schileyko, 1998 - raised in 2016 to family level Truncatellinidae
  • Subfamily Gastrocoptinae Pilsbry, 1918 - synonyms: Hypselostomatinae Zilch, 1959; Aulacospirinae Zilch, 1959
  • Subfamily Nesopupinae Steenberg, 1925 - synonym: Cylindrovertillidae Iredale, 1940

    Genera

Genera in the family Vertiginidae include:
;Subfamily Vertigininae
Tribe Vertiginini
; Subfamily Nesopupinae
; Subfamily ?