''Valvatidae'', the valve snails, is a
taxonomic
Taxonomy is the practice and science of categorization or classification.
A taxonomy (or taxonomical classification) is a scheme of classification, especially a hierarchical classification, in which things are organized into groups or types. ...
family of very small
freshwater snail
Freshwater snails are gastropod mollusks which live in fresh water. There are many different families. They are found throughout the world in various habitats, ranging from ephemeral pools to the largest lakes, and from small seeps and springs ...
s with an
operculum,
aquatic 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.
Taxonomy
The family Valvatidae has no subfamilies (according to the
taxonomy of the Gastropoda by Bouchet & Rocroi, 2005).
Genera
The
type genus of this family is ''Valvata''
O.F. Müller, 1774.
Genera in the family Valvatidae include:
* ''
Andrussovia'' Brusina, 1903
* ''
Borysthenia
''Borysthenia'' is a genus of small freshwater snails with an operculum, aquatic gastropod mollusks in the family Valvatidae, the valve snails.
The aperture of ''Borysthenia'' is not circular. '' Lindholm, 1933
* ''
Costovalvata'' Polinski, 1932
* ''
Liratina'' Lindholm, 1906
* ''
Megalovalvata'' Lindholm, 1906
* ''
Valvata'' Müller, 1774
** ''
Cincinna'' Hübner, 1810 - It is recognized either as genus
[ Anistratenko O., Degtyarenko E., Anistratenko V. (2010). "Сравнительная морфология раковины и радулы брюхоногих моллюсков семейства Valvatidae из Северного Причерноморья. hell and radula comparative morphology of the Gastropod Molluscs family Valvatidae from the North Black Sea coast. ''Ruthenica'' 20(2): 91-101]
PDF
/ref> of a subgenus of ''Valvata''.
Ecology
Snails in the family Valvatidae are useful for measuring water quality as biological indicator
A bioindicator is any species (an indicator species) or group of species whose function, population, or status can reveal the qualitative status of the environment. The most common indicator species are animals. For example, copepods and other sma ...
s. According to the Biological monitoring working party
The biological monitoring working party (BMWP) is a procedure for measuring water quality using families of macroinvertebrates as biological indicators.
The method is based on the principle that different aquatic invertebrates have different to ...
they have a score of 3, which means that they have quite a high tolerance to pollutants.
References
Haszprunar G (2014) A nomenclator of extant and fossil taxa of the Valvatidae (Gastropoda, Ectobranchia). ZooKeys 377: 1-172. https://www.pensoft.net/J_FILES/1/articles/6032/6032-G-3-layout.pdf
Further reading
* Hannibal H. (1910). ''Valvatidae of the Western North America''. The Nautilus
page 104
107.
External links
Taxa named by John Edward Gray
{{Valvatidae-stub