''Ambigolimax'' is a

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

of air-breathing land

slug Slug, or land slug, is a common name for any apparently shell-less Terrestrial mollusc, terrestrial gastropod mollusc. The word ''slug'' is also often used as part of the common name of any gastropod mollusc that has no shell, a very reduced ...

s in the family

Limacidae Limacidae, also known by their common name the keelback slugs, are a taxonomic family of medium-sized to very large, air-breathing land slugs, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod molluscs in the superfamily Limacoidea. Distribution The distributio ...

, the keelback slugs. There is still ongoing disagreement whether it is more appropriate to consider ''Ambigolimax'' as merely a subgenus of '' Lehmannia''; the evidence for splitting them is phylogenetic trees constructed on the basis of DNA sequences.

Species

The species in the genus are: Pollonera Lehmannia valentiana BollMusZoolAnatCompTor V2T1

* '' Ambigolimax parvipenis'' Hutchinson, Reise & Schlitt, 2022 * '' Ambigolimax valentianus'' (Férussac, 1821) – Valencia slug, threeband garden slug * '' Ambigolimax waterstoni'' Hutchinson, Reise & Schlitt, 2022 These species are not reliably distinguishable on the basis of external characters, so identification requires either dissection to reveal the genitalia or DNA sequencing. All three are invasive in various parts of the world. * In addition, ''Lehmannia melitensis'' is treated as '' Ambigolimax melitensis'' by Hutchinson et al. (2022) based on similarity of DNA sequences. Previous usage of the name '' Ambigolimax nyctelius'' has now been shown to refer to several species that had been confused: ''A. parvipenis'', ''A. waterstoni'', and '' Lehmannia carpatica''. Furthermore, the species name ''nyctelius'' actually refers to a species of ''Letourneuxia'' (family

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 s ...

Taxonomic history

''Ambigolimax'' was constructed by Pollonera in 1887 to encompass ''A. valentianus'' and what he called ''A. fulvus'' but is now understood to be '' Malacolimax tenellus''. He considered ''Ambigolimax'' as a subgenus of ''Agriolimax'' (now ''

Deroceras ''Deroceras'' is a taxonomic genus of small to medium-sized air-breathing land slugs in the family Agriolimacidae. Description Most species reach only 30–35 mm in length (max 45 mm). Coloration varies considerably within and ...

'') in the family

Agriolimacidae ''Agriolimacidae'' is a family of small and medium-sized land slugs, or shell-less snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusks. Distribution Distribution of Limacidae is Holarctic, this include: Nearctic, western Palearctic and eastern P ...

. In 1926,

Hesse Hesse or Hessen ( ), officially the State of Hesse (), is a States of Germany, state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt, which is also the country's principal financial centre. Two other major hist ...

transferred it to become a subgenus of ''Lehmannia'' in the family

. Since about 2007 the increasing tendency has been to split ''Lehmannia'' s.l. into two genera, ''Lehmannia'' s.s. and ''Ambigolimax''. This splitting was based on the genetic evidence that the position of '' Malacolimax'' in the

phylogenetic tree A phylogenetic tree or phylogeny is a graphical representation which shows the evolutionary history between a set of species or taxa during a specific time.Felsenstein J. (2004). ''Inferring Phylogenies'' Sinauer Associates: Sunderland, MA. In ...

makes ''Lehmannia'' s.l. a

paraphyletic Paraphyly is a taxonomic term describing a grouping that consists of the grouping's last common ancestor and some but not all of its descendant lineages. The grouping is said to be paraphyletic ''with respect to'' the excluded subgroups. In co ...

group.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q20685871 Gastropod genera