Parthenina
Encyclopedia
Parthenina is a genus
of very small sea snail
s, pyramidellid
gastropod mollusks or micromollusk
s. This genus is currently placed in the subfamily Chrysallidinae
of the family
Odostomiidae. The name Parthenia was created by Lowe in 1840 for the species in this group, but had to be replaced since it was preoccupied by a name for a group of dipterans described by Roubineau-Desvoidy in 1830.
with a mesh-like surface or woth longitudinal ridges. Between these ridges there are series of spiral ridges. Many of the European species in the genus have for a long time been wrongly placed in the genus Chrysallida
, but Schander et al. (2003) showed that they should indeed be placed in the genus Parthenina. This separation was followed by Pimenta et al. (2009) for Brazilian species.
Genus
In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...
of very small sea snail
Snail
Snail is a common name applied to most of the members of the molluscan class Gastropoda that have coiled shells in the adult stage. When the word is used in its most general sense, it includes sea snails, land snails and freshwater snails. The word snail without any qualifier is however more often...
s, pyramidellid
Pyramidellidae
Pyramidellidae, common name the pyram family, or pyramid shells, is a voluminous taxonomic family of mostly small and minute ectoparasitic sea snails, marine heterobranch gastropod molluscs or micromolluscs....
gastropod mollusks or micromollusk
Micromollusk
A micromollusk is a descriptive term for a shelled mollusk which is extremely small, even at full adult size. The word is usually, but not exclusively, applied to marine mollusks, although in addition, numerous species of land snails and freshwater mollusks also reach adult size at very small...
s. This genus is currently placed in the subfamily Chrysallidinae
Chrysallidinae
Chrysallidinae is a taxonomic group of very small sea snails in the family Pyramidellidae.- Taxonomy :Chrysallidinae has been one of eleven recognized subfamilies of the gastropod family Pyramidellidae...
of the family
Family (biology)
In biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus. As for the other well-known ranks, there is the option of an immediately lower rank, indicated by the...
Odostomiidae. The name Parthenia was created by Lowe in 1840 for the species in this group, but had to be replaced since it was preoccupied by a name for a group of dipterans described by Roubineau-Desvoidy in 1830.
Shell description
In the original description Bucquoy, Dautzenberg & Dollfus (1833) states (in English translation) that Partnenina is a type of OdostomiaOdostomia
Odostomia is the most speciose genus of minute sea snails, pyramidellid gastropod mollusks. This genus is currently placed in the family Pyramidellidae in the subfamily Odostomiinae. There are several hundred species in the genus...
with a mesh-like surface or woth longitudinal ridges. Between these ridges there are series of spiral ridges. Many of the European species in the genus have for a long time been wrongly placed in the genus Chrysallida
Chrysallida
Chrysallida is a speciose genus of minute sea snails, pyramidellid gastropod mollusks or micromollusks in the family Pyramidellidae within the tribe Chrysallidini.- Taxonomy :...
, but Schander et al. (2003) showed that they should indeed be placed in the genus Parthenina. This separation was followed by Pimenta et al. (2009) for Brazilian species.
Life history
The genus is parasitic, manly on serpulid polychaete worms. They are known to have spermatophores.Species
Species within the genus Parthenina include:- Parthenina interstincta (Montagu, 1803) - type species, as Turbo interstinctus
- Parthenina affectuosa (Yokoyama, 1927)
- Parthenina indistincta (Montagu, 1908)
- Parthenina interspatiosa (Linden & Eikenboom, 1992)
- Parthenina sarsii (Nordsieck, 1972)
- Parthenina varia (Odé, 1993)
