''Melanella acicula'' 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 Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

Eulimidae Eulimidae is a family of very small parasitic sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the superfamily Vanikoroidea. Description These small parasitic snails live on (or in some cases in) the bodies of echinoderms such as sea cucumbers, se ...

. This species is one of many species known to exist within the genus, ''

Melanella ''Melanella'' is a genus of very small Ectoparasite, ectoparasitic sea snails, marine (ocean), marine gastropod molluscs or micromolluscs in the family (biology), family Eulimidae.Gofas, S. (2011). Melanella Bowdich, 1822. Accessed through: Worl ...

''.Gould, 1849. Warén A. (1984) A generic revision of the family Eulimidae (Gastropoda, Prosobranchia). Journal of Molluscan Studies suppl. 13: 1-96. page(s): 56. Accessed through:

World Register of Marine Species The World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS) is a taxonomic database that aims to provide an authoritative and comprehensive catalogue and list of names of marine organisms. Content The content of the registry is edited and maintained by scien ...

at http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=537004 on 2013-03-22.Warén A. (2011). Checklist of Eulimidae. pers. com.

References

External links

To World Register of Marine Species

acicula Acicula (: aciculum) are strong, stout internal chaeta A chaeta or cheta (; ) is a chitinous bristle or seta found on annelid worms, although the term is also frequently used to describe similar structures in other invertebrates such as art ...

Gastropods described in 1849 {{Eulimidae-stub