Cymbulioidea is a

taxonomic 280px, Generalized scheme of taxonomy Taxonomy is a practice and science concerned with classification or categorization. Typically, there are two parts to it: the development of an underlying scheme of classes (a taxonomy) and the allocation ...

superfamily SUPERFAMILY is a database and search platform of structural and functional annotation for all proteins and genomes. It classifies amino acid sequences into known structural domains, especially into SCOP superfamilies. Domains are functional, str ...

pelagic The pelagic zone consists of the water column of the open ocean and can be further divided into regions by depth. The word ''pelagic'' is derived . The pelagic zone can be thought of as an imaginary cylinder or water column between the sur ...

sea butterflies The Thecosomata (collective/plural: ''thecosomes'', meaning "case/shell-body"), or sea butterflies, are a taxonomic suborder of small, pelagic, free-swimming sea snails known as holoplanktonic opisthobranch gastropod mollusks, in the order ...

", one group of swimming

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. They are

holoplankton Holoplankton are organisms that are planktic (they live in the water column and cannot swim against a current) for their entire life cycle. Holoplankton can be contrasted with meroplankton, which are planktic organisms that spend part of their l ...

opisthobranch Opisthobranchs () is a now informal name for a large and diverse group of specialized complex gastropods which used to be united in the subclass Opisthobranchia. That taxon is no longer considered to represent a monophyletic grouping. Euopistho ...

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 ...

mollusc 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 ...

s in the clade

Thecosomata The Thecosomata (collective/plural: ''thecosomes'', meaning "case/shell-body"), or sea butterflies, are a taxonomic suborder of small, pelagic, free-swimming sea snails known as holoplanktonic opisthobranch gastropod mollusks, in the order Pt ...

Anatomy

Some groups within this superfamily possess a shell in the adult stage, some are without a shell in the adult stage, and others have developed a relatively tough gelatinous, cartilaginous internal structure, a sort of fake shell called the pseudoconch. The lateral and posterior foot lobes are joined as a ciliated

proboscis A proboscis () is an elongated appendage from the head of an animal, either a vertebrate or an invertebrate. In invertebrates, the term usually refers to tubular arthropod mouthparts, mouthparts used for feeding and sucking. In vertebrates, a pr ...

that leads to the mouth, and the wings are united ventrally to form a single plate. A more general description is given under the entry

sea butterfly The Thecosomata (collective/plural: ''thecosomes'', meaning "case/shell-body"), or sea butterflies, are a taxonomic suborder of small, pelagic, free-swimming sea snails known as holoplanktonic opisthobranch gastropod mollusks, in the order Pter ...

Taxonomy

The group was originally referred to as the Pseudothecosomata Meisenheimer, 1905, although this name is invalid under the

ICZN The International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) is a widely accepted convention in zoology that rules the formal scientific naming of organisms treated as animals. It is also informally known as the ICZN Code, for its formal author, t ...

and thus is no longer recognized. Instead its three families are categorized within the superfamily Cymbulioidea, which is itself part of the

clade In biology, a clade (), also known as a Monophyly, monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that is composed of a common ancestor and all of its descendants. Clades are the fundamental unit of cladistics, a modern approach t ...

Thecosomata. The superfamily Cymbulioidea consists of three following families (according to the taxonomy of the Gastropoda by Bouchet & Rocroi, 2005): *Family

Peraclidae Peraclidae is a family of pelagic sea snails or "sea butterflies", marine (ocean), marine gastropod molluscs in the superfamily Cymbulioidea. This family has no subfamilies (according to the Taxonomy of the Gastropoda (Bouchet & Rocroi, 2005), t ...

C. W. Johnson, 1915 **Genus '' Peracle'' Forbes, 1844 *Family

Cymbuliidae Cymbuliidae is a family of pelagic sea snails or "sea butterflies", marine (ocean), marine gastropod mollusks in the superfamily Cymbulioidea. Description Instead of an external calcareous shell, they possess a pseudoconch, consisting of conch ...

J.E. Gray John Edward Gray (12 February 1800 – 7 March 1875) was a British zoologist. He was the elder brother of zoologist George Robert Gray and son of the pharmacologist and botanist Samuel Frederick Gray (1766–1828). The same is used for a zoo ...

, 1840 **Genus '' Corolla'' Dall, 1871 **Genus '' Cymbulia'' Peron & Lesueur, 1810 **Genus ''

Gleba Gleba (, from Latin ''glaeba, glēba'', "lump") is the fleshy spore-bearing inner mass of certain fungi such as the puffball or stinkhorn. The gleba is a solid mass of spores, generated within an enclosed area within the sporocarp. The conti ...

'' Forsskål, 1776 *Family

Desmopteridae Desmopteridae is a family of pelagic sea snails or "sea butterflies", marine gastropod mollusks in the superfamily Cymbulioidea. This family has no subfamilies (according to the taxonomy of the Gastropoda by Bouchet & Rocroi, 2005). '' Desmo ...

( Dall, 1921) **Genus '' Desmopterus'' Chun, 1889

Anatomy

Taxonomy

References

Further reading