''Drymaeus'' is a large

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 medium-sized, air-breathing tropical

land snail A land snail is any of the numerous species of snail that live on land, as opposed to the sea snails and freshwater snails. ''Land snail'' is the common name for terrestrial molluscs, terrestrial gastropod mollusks that have gastropod shell, shel ...

terrestrial Terrestrial refers to things related to land or the planet Earth, as opposed to extraterrestrial. Terrestrial may also refer to: * Terrestrial animal, an animal that lives on land opposed to living in water, or sometimes an animal that lives on o ...

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 inclu ...

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 ...

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

belonging to the subfamily Peltellinae within the family

Bulimulidae Bulimulidae is a taxonomic family of medium-sized to large, air-breathing, tropical and sub-tropical land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod molluscs in the superfamily Orthalicoidea.MolluscaBase eds. (2020). MolluscaBase. Bulimulidae Tryon, ...

. It is one of the most species-rich genera among

Neotropical The Neotropical realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms constituting Earth's land surface. Physically, it includes the tropical terrestrial ecoregions of the Americas and the entire South American temperate zone. Definition In biogeogra ...

land mollusks, comprising approximately 300 species distributed from

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

through Central and

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

Taxonomy and etymology

The name ''Drymaeus'' was first introduced by

Johann Christian Albers Johann Christian Albers (13 March 1795, Bremen – September 1857, Stuttgart) was a German physician and malacologist. During his career, he served as ''Medicinalrath'' and ''Regierungsrath'' in Berlin. As a zoologist, he was the binomial autho ...

in 1850 as a subgenus of '' Bulimus'' Bruguière, 1789. The name stems from the greek word δρῦς (drys), meaning "tree" or "

oak An oak is a hardwood tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' of the beech family. They have spirally arranged leaves, often with lobed edges, and a nut called an acorn, borne within a cup. The genus is widely distributed in the Northern Hemisp ...

", the word ''drymaeus'' itself meaning "lives in the woods". The genus continues to be the subject of active taxonomic and evolutionary research. Currently, it is classified within the family Bulimulidae, a group of mostly

arboreal Arboreal locomotion is the locomotion of animals in trees. In habitats in which trees are present, animals have evolved to move in them. Some animals may scale trees only occasionally (scansorial), but others are exclusively arboreal. The hab ...

snail A snail is a shelled gastropod. The name is most often applied to land snails, terrestrial molluscs, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod molluscs. However, the common name ''snail'' is also used for most of the members of the molluscan class Gas ...

s in the superfamily Orthalicoidea. Historically, classification within ''Drymaeus'' has relied heavily on

shell Shell may refer to: Architecture and design * Shell (structure), a thin structure ** Concrete shell, a thin shell of concrete, usually with no interior columns or exterior buttresses Science Biology * Seashell, a hard outer layer of a marine ani ...

morphology, but this approach has proven problematic due to extensive

phenotypic plasticity Phenotypic plasticity refers to some of the changes in an organism's behavior, morphology and physiology in response to a unique environment. Fundamental to the way in which organisms cope with environmental variation, phenotypic plasticity encompa ...

and

convergent evolution Convergent evolution is the independent evolution of similar features in species of different periods or epochs in time. Convergent evolution creates analogous structures that have similar form or function but were not present in the last comm ...

. As a result, several species were misclassified or synonymized prematurely.

Distribution and habitat

''Drymaeus'' species are primarily distributed throughout the

region, from

and

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

Thompson F. G. (2008)
"AN ANNOTATED CHECKLIST AND BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE LAND AND FRESHWATER SNAILS OF MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA"

accessed 17 May 2011. through

Central America Central America is a subregion of North America. Its political boundaries are defined as bordering Mexico to the north, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest. Central America is usually ...

and into

, including the

Amazon basin The Amazon basin is the part of South America drained by the Amazon River and its tributary, tributaries. The Amazon drainage basin covers an area of about , or about 35.5 percent of the South American continent. It is located in the countries ...

, the Andean foothills, and the Atlantic Forest and other biomes in

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

and

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

. Most species are arboreal or semi-arboreal, favoring moist, shaded environments such as lowland rainforests and cloud forests. They are typically found on leaves, tree trunks, and in leaf litter, where humidity levels are high. Their diet consists mainly of biofilm, algae, and decaying plant material. Many species exhibit narrow ecological tolerances and specialized habitat requirements, making them vulnerable to deforestation and habitat fragmentation. Consequently, numerous species within the genus are likely threatened, although few have been formally assessed due to taxonomic uncertainties.

Species

About 300 species are currently classified under the genus ''Drymaeus''. Due to ongoing taxonomic revisions, the precise number is subject to change; some species previously belonging to ''Drymaeus'' have been moved to ''

Antidrymaeus ''Antidrymaeus'' is a genus of tropical land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod molluscs in the subfamily Peltellinae of the family Bulimulidae. ''Antidrymaeus'' was previously considered a subgenus of ''Drymaeus ''Drymaeus'' is a large g ...

'' and ''

Mesembrinus ''Mesembrinus'' is a genus of tropical land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod molluscs in the subfamily Peltellinae of the family Bulimulidae. ''Mesembrinus'' was previously considered a subgenus of ''Drymaeus ''Drymaeus'' is a large genu ...

''. Both were formerly considered

subgenera In biology, a subgenus ( subgenera) is a taxonomic rank directly below genus. In the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, a subgeneric name can be used independently or included in a species name, in parentheses, placed between the ge ...

of ''Drymaeus'', but were elevated to genus level to reflect recent research on their

evolution Evolution is the change in the heritable Phenotypic trait, characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. It occurs when evolutionary processes such as natural selection and genetic drift act on genetic variation, re ...

and relationships.Breure A. S. H. & Romero P. (2012). "Support and surprises: molecular phylogeny of the land snail superfamily Orthalicoidea using a three-locus gene analysis with a divergence time analysis and ancestral area reconstruction (Gastropoda: Stylommatophora)". '' Archiv für Molluskenkunde: International Journal of Malacology'' 141(1): 1-20. .

References

External links

Tree snails of Florida, ''Drymaeus'' spp.
on the UF / IFAS Featured Creatures website {{Wikispecies, Drymaeus, ''Drymaeus'' Bulimulidae Taxonomy articles created by Polbot