Carychiinae | |
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Apertural view of a shell of Carychium minimum | |
Scientific classification ![]() | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Mollusca |
Class: | Gastropoda |
Subclass: | Heterobranchia |
Order: | Ellobiida |
Superfamily: | Ellobioidea |
Family: | Ellobiidae |
Subfamily: | Carychiinae Jeffreys, 1830 |
Synonyms[1] | |
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Carychiinae is a taxonomic subfamily of minute air-breathing land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusks.[1]
Carychiinae is part of the family Ellobiidae (according to the taxonomy of the Gastropoda by Bouchet & Rocroi, 2005).[2]
Some authors consider Carychiidae as a separate family.[3]
Genera within the subfamily Carychiinae include:
One lineage of the Ellobioidea, the Carychiidae has successfully accomplished a complete transition onto land.[3] Extant carychiid snails inhabit aphotic and permanently wet epigean (Carychium) or subterranean (Zospeum) environments throughout their Holarctic distribution.[3] This dramatic shift from a marine to a terrestrial habitat has occurred independently of the stylommatophoran land-snails of the Eupulmonata.[3]