Philomycidae
| Philomycidae | |
|---|---|
 |
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| A live individual of Megapallifera mutabilis in the wild | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Mollusca |
| Class: | Gastropoda |
| (unranked): |
clade Heterobranchia clade Euthyneura |
| Superfamily: | Arionoidea |
| Family: |
Philomycidae Gray, 1847 |
| Genera | |
|
See text |
|
| Synonyms | |
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Tebennophoridae Morse, 1864 |
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clade Euthyneura
clade Panpulmonata
clade Eupulmonata
clade Stylommatophora
informal group Sigmurethra
See text
Tebennophoridae Morse, 1864
Philomycidae are a family of air-breathing land slugs (snails without shells or with only shell remnants). They are terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusks in the superfamily Arionoidea (according to the taxonomy of the Gastropoda by Bouchet & Rocroi, 2005).
The family Philomycidae has no subfamilies.
Slugs in this family are found in China, Japan, the East Indies, central and eastern North America, and through Central America into northern South America.
Members of this family most obviously differ from related slugs in that their mantles are broadly rounded, and very large, covering the entire body. (In mollusks, the mantle consists of the tissues that normally generate the shell. Being mostly or entirely without shells, most slugs have reduced mantles.)
Pilsbry (1948) stated that "the enormously developed mantle, the large empty shell sac, and the insertions of the free retractor muscles along the margins of the foot cavity, instead of dorsally as in the Arionidae are special to the Philomycidae".
A further anatomical oddity of the group, shared with certain helicid and zonitid snails, is their creation and use of calcareous love darts during mating.
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