Philomycidae are a family of air-breathing land slugs (snails without shells or with only shell remnants). They are terrestrial

pulmonate Pulmonata or pulmonates, is an informal group (previously an order, and before that a subclass) of snails and slugs characterized by the ability to breathe air, by virtue of having a pallial lung instead of a gill, or gills. The group includ ...

gastropod The gastropods (), commonly known as snails and slugs, belong to a large taxonomic class of invertebrates within the phylum Mollusca called Gastropoda (). This class comprises snails and slugs from saltwater, from freshwater, and from land. T ...

mollusks in the superfamily

Arionoidea Arionoidea is a taxonomic group, superfamily of air-breathing land slugs, shell-less terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusks. Families Families within the superfamily Arionoidea include: * Arionidae * Anadenidae * Ariolimacidae * Bin ...

(according to the taxonomy of the Gastropoda by Bouchet & Rocroi, 2005). The family Philomycidae has no subfamilies.

Distribution

Slugs in this family are found in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

, the East Indies, central and eastern

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

, and through Central America into northern South America.

Anatomy

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 Henry Augustus Pilsbry (7 December 1862 – 26 October 1957) was an American biologist, malacologist and carcinologist, among other areas of study. He was a dominant presence in many fields of invertebrate taxonomy for the better part of a centu ...

(1948) stated that "the enormously developed

mantle A mantle is a piece of clothing, a type of cloak. Several other meanings are derived from that. Mantle may refer to: *Mantle (clothing), a cloak-like garment worn mainly by women as fashionable outerwear **Mantle (vesture), an Eastern Orthodox ve ...

, 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 Arionidae, common name the "roundback slugs" or "round back slugs" are a taxonomic family of air-breathing land slugs, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusks in the superfamily Arionoidea. Distribution The distribution of this family of slug ...

are special to the Philomycidae". Pilsbry H. A. (1948). "Land Mollusca of North America (North of Mexico)". ''Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia'', Monograph 3, 2(2): 748-750. 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.Örstan A. (2005)
"The dissection selection: ''Philomycus carolinianus''"
''Snail's Tales''. In this family, the number of

haploid Ploidy () is the number of complete sets of chromosomes in a cell, and hence the number of possible alleles for autosomal and pseudoautosomal genes. Sets of chromosomes refer to the number of maternal and paternal chromosome copies, respectively ...

chromosomes lies between 21 and 30 (according to the values in this table).Barker G. M. (2001). Gastropods on Land: ''Phylogeny, Diversity and Adaptive Morphology''. in Barker G. M. (ed.):
The biology of terrestrial molluscs
'. CABI Publishing, Oxon, UK, 2001, . 1-146, cited pages: 139 and 142.

Genera

Genera within the family Philomycidae include: * '' Megapallifera'' Hubricht, 1956 * ''

Meghimatium ''Meghimatium'' is a genus of medium to large air-breathing land slugs, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusks in the family Philomycidae and the superfamily Arionoidea, the roundback slugs. Species Species within the genus ''Meghimatium'' inc ...

'' Hasselt, 1823 - synonym: ''Incilaria'' Benson, 1842 * ''

Pallifera ''Pallifera'' is a genus of air-breathing land slugs, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusks in the family Philomycidae. Species Species include: *'' Pallifera costaricensis'' (Mörch, 1857) *'' Pallifera dorsalis'' (Binney, 1842) – pa ...

'' Morse, 1864 * '' Philomycus'' Rafinesque, 1820 - the type genus

Cladogram

A cladogram based on sequences of cytochrome-c oxidase I (COI) genes showing phylogenic relations of genera in the family Philomycidae by Tsai & Wu (2008)Tsai C.-L. & Wu S.-K. (2008). "A New ''Meghimatium'' Slug (Pulmonata: Philomycidae) from Taiwan". '' Zoological Studies'' 47(6): 759-766
PDF
(simplified): ''Arion'' and ''Deroceras'' were used as

outgroup Outgroup may refer to: * Outgroup (cladistics), an evolutionary-history concept * Outgroup (sociology), a social group {{disambig ...

References

External links

Slugs of Florida
on the UF /

IFAS IFAS may refer: * Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences * Integrated Fixed-Film Activated Sludge, a sewage treatment process * International French adjectival system In rock climbing, mountaineering, and other climbing disciplines, clim ...

Featured Creatures Web site {{Taxonbar, from=Q127698 Taxa named by John Edward Gray Gastropod families