''Besla'' is a small

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 miniature

sea snail Sea snails are slow-moving marine (ocean), marine gastropod Mollusca, molluscs, usually with visible external shells, such as whelk or abalone. They share the Taxonomic classification, taxonomic class Gastropoda with slugs, which are distinguishe ...

s, pyramidellid

gastropod Gastropods (), commonly known as slugs and snails, belong to a large Taxonomy (biology), taxonomic class of invertebrates within the phylum Mollusca called Gastropoda (). This class comprises snails and slugs from saltwater, freshwater, and fro ...

mollusk Mollusca is a phylum of protostomic invertebrate animals, whose members are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 76,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized, making it the second-largest animal phylum after Arthropoda. The ...

s in the family

Pyramidellidae Pyramidellidae, common name the pyram family, or pyramid shells, is a voluminous taxonomic family of mostly small and minute ectoparasitic sea snails, marine heterobranch gastropod molluscs. The great majority of species of pyrams are micromol ...

within the tribe

Chrysallidini Chrysallidinae is a taxonomic group of very small sea snails, marine gastropod mollusk in the family Pyramidellidae, the pyrams and their allies. Taxonomy Chrysallidinae has been one of eleven recognized subfamilies of the gastropod family Py ...

(

sensu ''Sensu'' is a Latin word meaning "in the sense of". It is used in a number of fields including biology, geology, linguistics, semiotics, and law. Commonly it refers to how strictly or loosely an expression is used in describing any particular co ...

taxonomy by Bouchet & Roctroi, 2005).Gofas, S.; Bouchet, P. (2012). Besla Dall & Bartsch, 1904. Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=571798 on 2012-08-27

Taxonomy

The

synonymy A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means precisely or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are a ...

of ''Parthenina'' (Bucquoy, Dautzenberg & Dolfus, 1883) with ''Besla'' (Doll & Bartsch, 1904) proposed by Micali ''et al.,'' (2012) is debatable. The type species of ''Besla'' has a

protoconch A protoconch (meaning first or earliest or original shell) is an embryonic or larval shell which occurs in some classes of molluscs, e.g., the initial chamber of an ammonite or the larval shell of a gastropod. In older texts it is also called " ...

axis at 90° with that of

teleoconch The gastropod shell is part of the body of many gastropods, including snails, a kind of mollusc. The shell is an exoskeleton, which protects from predators, mechanical damage, and dehydration, but also serves for muscle attachment and calcium ...

''(Type A'' ''protoconch),'' whereas that of ''Parthenina'' is tilted at nearly 180° ''(Type C);'' therefore, these divergent characteristics suggest that ''Besla'' and ''Parthenina'' are unrelated and that their

sculpture may be convergent.Micali P., Nofroni I. & Perna E. (2012) Parthenina alesii n. sp. from Eastern Mediterranean, and notes on Parthenina dantarti (Peñas & Rolán in Peñas, Rolán & Ballesteros, 2008) (Gastropoda: Heterobranchia: Pyramidellidae). Bollettino Malacologico 48(1): 69-72.

Life habits

Very little is known about the biology of the members of this genus. As is true of most members of the

sensu lato ''Sensu'' is a Latin word meaning "in the sense of". It is used in a number of fields including biology, geology, linguistics, semiotics, and law. Commonly it refers to how strictly or loosely an expression is used in describing any particular co ...

'', they are most likely to be

ectoparasite Parasitism is a Symbiosis, close relationship between species, where one organism, the parasite, lives (at least some of the time) on or inside another organism, the Host (biology), host, causing it some harm, and is Adaptation, adapted str ...

Species

There are more than twenty known species within the genus ''Besla'', these include: * '' Besla alphonsi'' (Saurin, 1959) * '' Besla annae'' (Saurin, 1959) * '' Besla arenarum'' (Saurin, 1959) * '' Besla articulata'' (Hedley, 1909) * '' Besla augusti'' (Saurin, 1959) * '' Besla bicinctella'' (Yokoyama, 1927) * '' Besla canaensis'' (Saurin, 1959) * '' Besla convexa'' (Carpenter, 1857) - type species as: ''Odostomia (Chrysallida) convexa'' * '' Besla cossmanni'' (Hornung & Mermod, 1924) * '' Besla danieli'' (Saurin, 1959) * '' Besla dheeradiloki'' (Robba, Di Geronimo, Chaimanee, Negri & Sanfilippo, 2003) * '' Besla excolpa'' (Bartsch, 1912) * '' Besla gabriellae'' (Saurin, 1959) * '' Besla gautieri'' (Saurin, 1959) * '' Besla henriettae'' (Saurin, 1959) * '' Besla insularis'' (Oliver, 1915) * '' Besla joae'' (Saurin, 1961) * † '' Besla lawsi'' (Grant-Mackie & Chapman-Smith, 1971) * '' Besla mieuina'' (Saurin, 1959) * † '' Besla otahua'' (Laws, 1950) * '' Besla ranae'' (Saurin, 1961) * '' Besla reamensis'' (Saurin, 1961) * '' Besla revisa'' (Saurin, 1959) * '' Besla rossiana'' (Laws, 1941) * '' Besla subrugata'' (Powell, 1927) * '' Besla tuytrieuensis'' (Saurin, 1959) * '' Besla vaga'' (Laws, 1941) * '' Besla waitangiensis'' (Laws, 1941)

References

3
Dall W. H. & Bartsch P. (1904). ''Synopsis of the genera, subgenera and sections of the family Pyramidellidae''. Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington 17: 1-16

Taxonomy

Life habits

Species

References

Further reading