Tropidophora
Encyclopedia
Tropidophora is a genus of land snail
Land snail
A land snail is any of the many species of snail that live on land, as opposed to those that live in salt water and fresh water. Land snails are terrestrial gastropod mollusks that have shells, It is not always an easy matter to say which species are terrestrial, because some are more or less...

s, terrestrial
Terrestrial animal
Terrestrial animals are animals that live predominantly or entirely on land , as compared with aquatic animals, which live predominantly or entirely in the water , or amphibians, which rely on a combination of aquatic and terrestrial habitats...

 gastropod mollusks in the family Pomatiidae
Pomatiidae
The family Pomatiidae is a taxonomic family of small operculate land snails, terrestrial gastropod mollusks that can be found over the warmer parts of the Old World. In the older literature, this family is designated as Pomatiasidae....

.

Distribution

These are large, split-sole, operculate
Operculum (gastropod)
The operculum, meaning little lid, is a corneous or calcareous anatomical structure which exists in many groups of sea snails and freshwater snails, and also in a few groups of land snails...

 snails found in Tanzania, Madagascar, the Mascarenes, the Comoros
Comoros
The Comoros , officially the Union of the Comoros is an archipelago island nation in the Indian Ocean, located off the eastern coast of Africa, on the northern end of the Mozambique Channel, between northeastern Mozambique and northwestern Madagascar...

 and South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

.

95-99 % of Tropidophora species are endemic to Madagascar.

Species

The present classification into three subgenera, 95 species and 142 varieties is complex and confused. It is best ignored temporarily, as it is based on subtle morphological varieties among small samples. It is assumed that many smaller species remain to be discovered.

Species within the genus Tropidophora include:
  • Tropidophora articulata
    Tropidophora articulata
    Tropidophora articulata is a species of land snail with a gill and an operculum, a terrestrial gastropod mollusk in the family Pomatiidae.This species is endemic to Mauritius....

    (Gray, 1834)
  • Tropidophora bewsheri
  • Tropidophora bipartita
  • Tropidophora carinata
    Tropidophora carinata
    Tropidophora carinata is a species of land snail with a gill and an operculum, a terrestrial gastropod mollusk in the family Pomatiidae.This species is found in Mauritius and Réunion.-Source:* Emberton, K.C. 1996. . Downloaded on 7 August 2007....

    Born, 1780 - possibly extinct
  • Tropidophora deburghiae
    Tropidophora deburghiae
    Tropidophora deburghiae is a species of land snail with a gill and an operculum, a terrestrial gastropod mollusk in the family Pomatiidae.This species is endemic to Madagascar.-References:...

    Reeve, 1861
  • Tropidophora deflorata (Morelet, 1876)
  • Tropidophora desmazuresi
    Tropidophora desmazuresi
    † Tropidophora desmazuresi was a species of land snail, a terrestrial gastropod mollusk in the family Pomatiidae.This species was endemic to Mauritius. It is now extinct.-Source:* Griffiths, O. 1996. . Downloaded on 7 August 2007....

    Crosse, 1873
  • Tropidophora fimbriata
    Tropidophora fimbriata
    Tropidophora fimbriata is a species of land snail with a gill and an operculum, a terrestrial gastropod mollusk in the family Pomatiidae.This species is found in the Mascarenes. Subspecies include T. f. rodriguesensis and T. f...

    (Lamarck, 1822)
  • Tropidophora michaudi
    Tropidophora michaudi
    Tropidophora michaudi is a species of land snail with a gill and an operculum, a terrestrial gastropod mollusk in the family Pomatiidae family.This species is endemic to Mauritius.- Original description :...

    Grateloup, 1840 - possibly extinct
  • Tropidophora perinetensis Fischer-Piette & Bedoucha, 1965
  • Tropidophora semidecussata
  • Tropidophora semilineata
    Tropidophora semilineata
    Tropidophora semilineata was a species of gastropod in the Pomatiidae family. It was endemic to Mayotte....

  • Tropidophora tricarinata
  • Tropidophora zanguebarica (Petit, 1850)
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