''Lophopleurella capensis'' is a

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

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 ...

, a marine

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 ...

in the family

Oxynoidae Oxynoidae is a family of sea snails, bubble snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the superfamily Oxynooidea, an opisthobranch group. This family has no subfamilies. Genera The following three genera or four are included in the family Oxynoida ...

. ''Lophopleurella capensis'' is the only species in the genus ''Lophopleurella''. The

specific name Specific name may refer to: * in Database management systems, a system-assigned name that is unique within a particular database In taxonomy, either of these two meanings, each with its own set of rules: * Specific name (botany), the two-part (bino ...

"''capensis''" is from the

Latin language Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

, meaning "of the Cape", i.e. from the

Cape Province The Province of the Cape of Good Hope (), commonly referred to as the Cape Province () and colloquially as The Cape (), was a province in the Union of South Africa and subsequently the Republic of South Africa. It encompassed the old Cape Co ...

Distribution

The type locality for this species is

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

.Jensen K. R. (November 2007)
"Biogeography of the Sacoglossa (Mollusca, Opisthobranchia)"
. ''

Bonner zoologische Beiträge The ''Bonn Zoological Bulletin'' (''BzB''), formerly ''Bonner zoologische Beiträge'', is a peer reviewed open access journal dealing with zoology Zoology ( , ) is the scientific study of animals. Its studies include the anatomy, structure ...

'' 55(2006)(3-4): 255–281.

Description

This species was originally described under name ''Lobiger'' (''Lophopleura'') ''capensis'' by German malacologist

Johannes Thiele Johannes Thiele may refer to: *Johannes Thiele (zoologist) *Johannes Thiele (chemist) {{hndis, Thiele, Johannes ...

in 1912 as a result of the

Gauss Expedition The ''Gauss'' expedition of 1901–1903 (also known as the ''Deutsche Südpolar-Expedition 1901–1903)'' was the first German expedition to Antarctica. It was led by geologist Erich von Drygalski in the ship , named after the mathematician and p ...

(1901–1903), that was the first German expedition to

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean (also known as the Antarctic Ocean), it contains the geographic South Pole. ...

. Johannes Thiele described it very briefly stating, that it "has wing-shaped attachments on sides of the body and very small wing on its shell". German malacologist

Adolf Michael Zilch Adolf (also spelt Adolph or Adolphe, Adolfo, and when Latinised Adolphus) is a given name with German origins. The name is a compound derived from the Old High German ''Athalwolf'' (or ''Hadulf''), a composition of ''athal'', or ''adal'', meani ...

established a new genus ''Lophopleurella'' Zilch, 1956 for this species, because the name '' Lophopleura'' Ragonot, 1891Ragonot (1891). ''Ann. Soc. Ent. France'' (6)10: 506. had already been occupied and used for a genus of

lepidopterans Lepidoptera ( ) or lepidopterans is an order (biology), order of winged insects which includes butterflies and moths. About 180,000 species of the Lepidoptera have been described, representing 10% of the total described species of living organ ...

from family

Pyralidae The Pyralidae, commonly called pyralid moths, snout moths or grass moths, are a family of Lepidoptera in the ditrysian superfamily Pyraloidea. In many (particularly older) classifications, the grass moths (Crambidae) are included in the Pyr ...

. Zilch only created the new generic name without a review of the genus.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q6678501 Oxynoidae Gastropods described in 1912