Belongs within: Mangeliidae. Dazed and Cythara Published 19 August 2026 I’ve had occasion multiple times on this site to comment on the taxonomic complications surrounding the conoid gastropods, ‘turrids’ in the broad sense. Nevertheless, among the more complicated cases is that of the genus name Cythara. Cythara striata was established by Christian Schumacher in 1817 for a… Continue reading Eucithara
Category: Articles
Platytrombidium
Belongs within: Microtrombidiidae. Platytrombidium is a genus of predatory mites known from adults only. The larva is as yet unidentified unless, as is quite possible, this genus is synonymous with the related Atractothrombium. Body hairs are short and thick, covered with short, fine setules (Southcott 1994). Mites in red velvet Published 22 December 2015 Mites… Continue reading Platytrombidium
Scoliostomatidae
Belongs within: Gastropoda. The Scoliostomatidae are a Devonian family of gastropods with a distinctive shell morphology: at maturity, the last whorl of the shell twists outwards and backwards, so its apparent position is reversed relative to the rest of the shell. This gerontic whorl also turns upwards in members of the subfamily Scoliostomatinae but not… Continue reading Scoliostomatidae
Sphagnales
Belongs within: Bryophyta.Contains: Sphagnum subgenus Sphagnum. The Sphagnum mosses are, together with the Tasmanian Ambuchanania leucobryoides, the sister group to all other living mosses. They have thalloid protonemata, leafy shoots lacking rhizoids, and the capsules are not held above the gametophytes by a seta but by an extension of the gametophyte itself called the pseudopod.… Continue reading Sphagnales
Agrostis
Belongs within: Pooideae. Agrostis, the bentgrasses, is a genus of about 200 species of grasses found in temperate and tropical montane regions of the Northern Hemisphere. Many bentgrasses are widely used in lawns. These include the creeping bentgrass A. stolonifera, which is native to Eurasia and northern Africa and has been widely introduced in other… Continue reading Agrostis
Stomatellinae
Belongs within: Trochidae. The Stomatellinae are a group of marine gastropods with flattened, usually ear- or slipper-shaped shells (Wilson 1993). A different kind of shell Published 3 November 2008 Both of the readers of this page will doubtless be glad to know that this post is bringing a respite from my temporary obsession with Palaeozoic… Continue reading Stomatellinae
Colloniinae
Belongs within: Vetigastropoda. The Colloniinae are a group of small gastropods characterised by a periumbilical cord (Monari et al. 1996). They include the cosmopolitan genus Homalopoma in which the umbilicus is small or absent (Knight et al. 1960). What we have here is a failure to communicate Published 19 October 2021 To those without much… Continue reading Colloniinae
Porcellioidea
Belongs within: Vetigastropoda. The Porcellioidea are a group of gastropods known from the Devonian and Carboniferous, characterised by a dextrally coiled protoconch, sinistrally coiled teleoconch (except in secondarily bilaterally symmetrical forms), and the presence of nacre (Frýda 2012). Alaskiella medfraensis Published 2 December 2009 Alaskiella medfraensis is a member of the Porcellioidea, a superfamily of… Continue reading Porcellioidea
Platyschismatinae
Belongs within: Macluritida. The Platyschismatinae are a Lower Ordovician to Middle Permian group of rotelliform or naticiform gastropods with a sinus at or above the middle of the labrum (Knight et al. 1960). On Platyschismatinae Published 26 September 2017 In an earlier post on this site, I commented on some of the various ways that… Continue reading Platyschismatinae
Trachypithecus
Belongs within: Cercopithecidae. Trachypithecus, leaf monkeys, is a genus of leaf-eating monkeys with distinct brow ridges found in southeast Asia. Sacred monkeys Published 11 August 2008 In this section, we’re considering the primate genus Semnopithecus. Once again, that’s a sentence that’s a bit easier to glibly write than it is to define. Semnopithecus includes the… Continue reading Trachypithecus