Limacidae

Family of keelback slugs

Limacidae

A live individual of Limax maximus
Scientific classification
Domain:  | Eukaryota
Kingdom:  | Animalia
Phylum:  | Mollusca
Class:  | Gastropoda
Subclass:  | Heterobranchia
Order:  | Stylommatophora
Superfamily:  | Limacoidea
Family:  | Limacidae
Lamarck, 1801[1]
Diversity[2][3]
12 genera, many species (more than 56 species)

Limacidae, also known by their common name the keelback slugs, are a taxonomic family of medium-sized to very large, air-breathing land slugs, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod molluscs in the superfamily Limacoidea.

## Distribution[edit]

The distribution of the family Limacidae is the western Palearctic.[4] There are 28 species of Limacidae in Russia and adjacent countries.[5]

## Anatomy[edit]

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## Cytology[edit]

In this family, the number of haploid chromosomes lies between 21 and 25 and also lies between 31 and 35 (according to the values in this table).[6]

## Taxonomy[edit]

### 2002 taxonomy[edit]

Zhiltsov & Schileyko (2002)[7] elevated the subfamily Bielziinae to family level, Bielziidae, based on the morphology of the reproductive system of Bielzia coerulans.[7]

### 2005 taxonomy[edit]

The following two subfamilies were recognized in the taxonomy of Bouchet & Rocroi (2005):

* subfamily Limacinae Lamarck, 1801 - synonyms: Limacopsidae Gerhardt, 1935;[8] Bielziinae I. M. Likharev & Wiktor, 1980
* subfamily Eumilacinae I. M. Likharev & Wiktor, 1980[9]

## Genera[edit]

Genera in the family Limacidae include:

subfamily Limacinae

* Limax Linnaeus, 1758[5] \- type genus of the family Limacidae
* Limacus Lehmann, 1864; sometimes considered a subgenus of Limax
* Bielzia Clessin, 1887 - with the only species Bielzia coerulans M. Bielz, 1851. Some authors, for example Russian malacologists,[5] classify genus Bielzia within separate family Limacopsidae.[5]
* Caspilimax P. Hesse, 1926[5]
* Caucasolimax Likharev et Wiktor, 1980[5]
* Gigantomilax O. Boettger, 1883[5]
* Gigantomilax csikii Soós, 1924
* Gigantomilax lederi (Boettger, 1883)
* Gigantomilax majoricensis (Heynemann, 1863)[10]
* Lehmannia Heynemann, 1862[5]
* Ambigolimax Pollonera, 1887,;[11] sometimes considered a subgenus of Lehmannia
* Limacopsis Simroth, 1888
* Malacolimax Malm, 1868[5]
* Turcomilax Simroth, 1901[5]

subfamily Eumilacinae

* Eumilax O. Boettger, 1881 - type genus of the subfamily Eumilacinae
* Eumilax brandti (Martens, 1880)
* Metalimax Simroth, 1896

## Cladogram[edit]

A cladogram showing the phylogenic relationships of this family to other families within the limacoid clade:[4]

limacoid clade |  |  Staffordioidea |

Staffordiidae

|

|  |  |  |  Dyakioidea |

Dyakiidae

|

Gastrodontoidea |  |  |

Pristilomatidae

|

|  |  |

Chronidae

|

|  |  |

Euconulidae

|

Trochomorphidae

|  |  |

Gastrodontidae

|

Oxychilidae

|  |  Parmacelloidea |  |  |

Trigonochlamydidae

|

Parmacellidae

Milacidae

|  |  |  |  Zonitoidea |

Zonitidae

|

Helicarionoidea |  |  |

Helicarionidae

|

|  |  |

Ariophantidae

|

Urocyclidae

Limacoidea |  |  |

Vitrinidae

|

|  |  |

Boettgerillidae

|

|  |  |

Limacidae

|

Agriolimacidae

## Ecology[edit]

Parasites of slugs in this family include larvae of the marsh flies Sciomyzidae, and others.

## References[edit]

1. ^ (in French) Lamarck J.-B. 1801\. Système des animaux sans vertèbres, ou tableau général des classes, des ordres et des genres de ces animaux; présentant leurs caractères essentiels et leur distribution, d'après la considération de leurs… Paris, Detreville, VIII: 1-432. Page 62, originally spelled under vernacular name "es Limaciers".
2. ^ (in Polish) Wiktor A. (1989). Limacoidea et Zonitoidea nuda. Slimaki pomrowioksztaltne (Gastropoda: Stylommatophora). Fauna Poloniae 12, Polska Akademia Nauk, Warszawa, 208 pp., page 141.
3. ^ "Families in Gastropoda" AnimalBase. accessed 10 September 2010.
4. ^ a b Hausdorf B. (2000). "Biogeography of the Limacoidea sensu lato (Gastropoda: Stylommatophora): Vicariance Events and Long-Distance Dispersal". Journal of Biogeography 27(2): 379-390. doi:10.1046/j.1365-2699.2000.00403.x, JSTOR.
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Kantor Yu I., Vinarski M. V., Schileyko A. A. & Sysoev A. V.(published online on December 22, 2009). "Catalogue of the continental mollusks of Russia and adjacent territories". Version 2.3.
6. ^ Barker G. M.: Gastropods on Land: Phylogeny, Diversity and Adaptive Morphology. in Barker G. M. (ed.): The biology of terrestrial molluscs. CABI Publishing, Oxon, UK, 2001, ISBN 0-85199-318-4. 1-146, cited pages: 139 and 142.
7. ^ a b (in Russian) Zhiltsov S. S. & Schileyko A. A. (2002). "Morphology of reproductive system of Bielzia coerulans (Gastropoda, Pulmonata) and phylogenetic relations of the genus Bielzia". Ruthenica 12: 73-79. abstract.
8. ^ (in German) Gerhardt U. (16 July 1935). "Weitere Untersuchungen zur Kopulation der Nacktschnecken". Zeitschrift für Morphologie und Ökologie der Tiere 30(2): 297-332. Page 329.
9. ^ (in Russian) Likharev I. M. & Wiktor A. (after 10 November 1980). Slizni fauny SSR i sopredelnykh stran (Gastropoda terrestria nuda) [The fauna of slugs of the USSR and adjacent countries]. Fauna SSSR, Molljuskii, 3(5): 437 pp. Page 290.
10. ^ Wiktor A., Quintana J. & Beckmann K.-H. (2007). "Redescription of "Limax majoricensis" (Heynemann 1863) (Gastropoda: Pulmonata: Limacidae) from the Balearic Islands. pp. 187-197. In: Beckmann K.-H.: Die Land- und Süßwassermollusken der Balearischen Inseln. ConchBooks, Hackenheim, 255 pp., ISBN 978-3-939767-05-3.
11. ^ Marshall, B. (2015). Ambigolimax Pollonera, 1887. Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=819989 on 2015-04-15

## External links[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Limacidae.

* Slugs of Florida on the UF / IFAS Featured Creatures Web site

Taxon identifiers|

* Wikidata: Q1757029
* Wikispecies: Limacidae
* ADW: Limacidae
* AFD: Limacidae
* BOLD: 104913
* CoL: 8R3JH
* EoL: 2645
* EPPO: 1LIMAF
* Fauna Europaea: 11468
* Fauna Europaea (new): 344b7230-910b-4278-8f85-5d8b41d279df
* Fossilworks: 114487
* GBIF: 6537
* iNaturalist: 62471
* IRMNG: 113856
* ITIS: 77300
* NBN: NHMSYS0001702067
* NCBI: 37859
* NZOR: 9bc48e54-3e82-4f94-8082-a7d63c05b687
* WoRMS: 154015

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