Acavidae
Chilean acavid
02-12-2009 20:13
The family Acavidae is
a rare find in the Neotropics. This family may be
found in the ‘Old World’ in Australia, Seychelles,
Sri Lanka and Madagascar. And in Chile, where the
genus Macrocyclis
occurs with its sole
species M.
peruvianus (Lamarck, 1822).
This large species is up to 60 mm diameter. Although it is commonly known as the largest snail in the Chilean land snail fauna, its anatomy was hitherto unknown. Recently, da Silva & Thomé (2009) unveiled more details on the ecology and anatomy.
It was founds after a hard day of searching, under fallen logs near the vicinity of Lago Azul.
This is another case of Gondwanan distribution at the family level. It would be interesting to see if the affinities are confirmed by molecular evidence.
Reference:
da Silva, L.F. & Thomé, J.W., 2009. Macrocyclis peruvianus (Gastropoda, Acavidae), an endemic land snail from Chile. - Iheringa, Zoologia 99(2): 125-128.
This large species is up to 60 mm diameter. Although it is commonly known as the largest snail in the Chilean land snail fauna, its anatomy was hitherto unknown. Recently, da Silva & Thomé (2009) unveiled more details on the ecology and anatomy.
It was founds after a hard day of searching, under fallen logs near the vicinity of Lago Azul.
This is another case of Gondwanan distribution at the family level. It would be interesting to see if the affinities are confirmed by molecular evidence.
Reference:
da Silva, L.F. & Thomé, J.W., 2009. Macrocyclis peruvianus (Gastropoda, Acavidae), an endemic land snail from Chile. - Iheringa, Zoologia 99(2): 125-128.