''Polygireulima'' 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 very small

parasitic Parasitism is a close relationship between species, where one organism, the parasite, lives (at least some of the time) on or inside another organism, the host, causing it some harm, and is adapted structurally to this way of life. The ent ...

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, 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 ...

s or

micromollusk A micromollusc is a shelled mollusc which is extremely small, even at full adult size. The word is usually, but not exclusively, applied to marine molluscs, although in addition, numerous species of land snails and freshwater molluscs also ...

s in the

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 ...

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 ...

. This genus was first described as ''Acicularia'' by Monterosato in 1884, a name ruled invalid as a

homonym In linguistics, homonyms are words which are either; '' homographs''—words that mean different things, but have the same spelling (regardless of pronunciation), or '' homophones''—words that mean different things, but have the same pronunciat ...

of several prior names. In 1984, Anders Warén's "A generic revision of the family Eulimidae (Gastropoda, Prosobranchia)" synonymised ''Acicularia'' with Federico Sacco's 1892 description of ''Polygireulima''.

Species

Species within the ''Polygireulima'' genera include: * † '' Polygireulima deshayesi'' (Cossmann, 1888) *'' Polygireulima rutila'' Carpenter, 1864 * † '' Polygireulima spina'' (Grateloup, 1838) ;Species brought into synonymy: *''Polygireulima amblytera'' Verrill & Bush, 1900: synonym of '' Melanella amblytera'' (Verrill & Bush, 1900) :A parasite of

echinoderms An echinoderm () is any animal of the phylum Echinodermata (), which includes starfish, brittle stars, sea urchins, sand dollars and sea cucumbers, as well as the sessile sea lilies or "stone lilies". While bilaterally symmetrical as larv ...

, existing in

subtidal The neritic zone (or sublittoral zone) is the relatively shallow part of the ocean above the drop-off of the continental shelf, approximately in depth. From the point of view of marine biology it forms a relatively stable and well-illuminate ...

habitats in the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea. * ''Polygireulima monterosatoi'' (Monterosato, 1890): synonym of '' Melanella pyramidalis'' (G. B. Sowerby II, 1866) * ''Polygireulima polita'' (Linnaeus, 1758): synonym of '' Melanella polita'' (Linnaeus, 1758)

References

* Warén A. (1984) ''A generic revision of the family Eulimidae (Gastropoda, Prosobranchia).'' Journal of Molluscan Studies suppl. 13: 1-96. Eulimidae {{Eulimidae-stub