Valvatidae, the valve snails, is a taxonomic family of very small freshwater snails with an operculum, aquatic gastropod mollusks.

Valvatidae
a live Valvata piscinalis
Drawing of apertural and umbilical views of a shell of Valvata cristata.
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Gastropoda
Subclass: Heterobranchia
Superfamily: Valvatoidea
Family: Valvatidae
J. E. Gray, 1840[1]
Diversity[2]
71 freshwater species
Synonyms

Borystheniinae Starobogatov, 1983

Taxonomy edit

The family Valvatidae has no subfamilies (according to the taxonomy of the Gastropoda by Bouchet & Rocroi, 2005).

Genera edit

The type genus of this family is Valvata O.F. Müller, 1774.

Genera in the family Valvatidae include:

Ecology edit

Snails in the family Valvatidae are useful for measuring water quality as biological indicators. According to the Biological monitoring working party they have a score of 3, which means that they have quite a high tolerance to pollutants.[citation needed]

References edit

  1. ^ Gray J. E. (1840). A manual of the land and fresh-water shells of the British Islands by W. Tyrton. page 79.
  2. ^ Strong E. E., Gargominy O., Ponder W. F. & Bouchet P. (2008). "Global Diversity of Gastropods (Gastropoda; Mollusca) in Freshwater". Hydrobiologia 595: 149-166. hdl:10088/7390 doi:10.1007/s10750-007-9012-6.
  3. ^ (in Russian) Anistratenko O., Degtyarenko E., Anistratenko V. (2010). "Сравнительная морфология раковины и радулы брюхоногих моллюсков семейства Valvatidae из Северного Причерноморья. [Shell and radula comparative morphology of the Gastropod Molluscs family Valvatidae from the North Black Sea coast]". Ruthenica 20(2): 91-101. PDF

Haszprunar G (2014) A nomenclator of extant and fossil taxa of the Valvatidae (Gastropoda, Ectobranchia). ZooKeys 377: 1–172. https://www.pensoft.net/J_FILES/1/articles/6032/6032-G-3-layout.pdf

Further reading edit

  • Hannibal H. (1910). Valvatidae of the Western North America. The Nautilus, page 104-107.