Besla

Genus of gastropods

Not to be confused with the Black Entertainment and Sports Lawyers Association (BESLA).

Besla

Apertural view of the shell of Besla convexa
Scientific classification
Domain:  | Eukaryota
Kingdom:  | Animalia
Phylum:  | Mollusca
Class:  | Gastropoda
Subcohort:  | Panpulmonata
Superfamily:  | Pyramidelloidea
Family:  | Pyramidellidae
Genus:  | Besla
Dall & Bartsch, 1904
Type species
Odostomia convexa

Carpenter, 1857

Besla is a small genus of miniature sea snails, pyramidellid gastropod mollusks in the family Pyramidellidae within the tribe Chrysallidini (sensu taxonomy by Bouchet & Roctroi, 2005).[1]

## Taxonomy

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The synonymy of Parthenina (Bucquoy, Dautzenberg & Dolfus, 1883) with Besla (Doll & Bartsch, 1904) proposed by Micali et al., (2012) is debatable. The type species of Besla has a protoconch axis at 90° with that of teleoconch (Type A protoconch), whereas that of Parthenina is tilted at nearly 180° (Type C); therefore, these divergent characteristics suggest that Besla and Parthenina are unrelated and that their teleoconch sculpture may be convergent.[2]

## Life habits

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Very little is known about the biology of the members of this genus. As is true of most members of the Pyramidellidae sensu lato, they are most likely to be ectoparasites.

## Species

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There are more than twenty known species within the genus Besla, these include:

* Besla alphonsi (Saurin, 1959)
* Besla annae (Saurin, 1959)
* Besla arenarum (Saurin, 1959)
* Besla articulata (Hedley, 1909)
* Besla augusti (Saurin, 1959)
* Besla bicinctella (Yokoyama, 1927)
* Besla canaensis (Saurin, 1959)
* Besla convexa (Carpenter, 1857) - type species as: Odostomia (Chrysallida) convexa
* Besla cossmanni (Hornung & Mermod, 1924)
* Besla danieli (Saurin, 1959)
* Besla dheeradiloki (Robba, Di Geronimo, Chaimanee, Negri & Sanfilippo, 2003)
* Besla excolpa (Bartsch, 1912)
* Besla gabriellae (Saurin, 1959)
* Besla gautieri (Saurin, 1959)
* Besla henriettae (Saurin, 1959)
* Besla insularis (Oliver, 1915)
* Besla joae (Saurin, 1961)
* † Besla lawsi (Grant-Mackie & Chapman-Smith, 1971)
* Besla mieuina (Saurin, 1959)
* † Besla otahua (Laws, 1950)
* Besla ranae (Saurin, 1961)
* Besla reamensis (Saurin, 1961)
* Besla revisa (Saurin, 1959)
* Besla rossiana (Laws, 1941)
* Besla subrugata (Powell, 1927)
* Besla tuytrieuensis (Saurin, 1959)
* Besla vaga (Laws, 1941)
* Besla waitangiensis (Laws, 1941)

## References

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1. ^ Gofas, S.; Bouchet, P. (2012). Besla Dall & Bartsch, 1904. Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=571798 on 2012-08-27
2. ^ Micali P., Nofroni I. & Perna E. (2012) Parthenina alesii n. sp. from Eastern Mediterranean, and notes on Parthenina dantarti (Peñas & Rolán in Peñas, Rolán & Ballesteros, 2008) (Gastropoda: Heterobranchia: Pyramidellidae). Bollettino Malacologico 48(1): 69-72.

3\. Dall W. H. & Bartsch P. (1904). Synopsis of the genera, subgenera and sections of the family Pyramidellidae. Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington 17: 1-16

## Further reading

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* Carpenter, P. P. (1857). Catalogue of the collection of Mazatlan shells in the British Museum collected by Frederik Reigen. London. pp. 552 pp.

Taxon identifiers

Besla|

* Wikidata: Q17143389
* CoL: 7NQPY
* GBIF: 2298512
* iNaturalist: 375761
* IRMNG: 1265271
* ITIS: 76026
* NBN: NHMSYS0021055917
* NZOR: d2b575e2-af10-4dd7-a5b5-8d9d789ad417
* Open Tree of Life: 2878525
* Paleobiology Database: 12048
* WoRMS: 571798