The South American fossil record of pulmonate gastropods counts with circa 100 species from the Cretaceous to the Pliocene. As this knowledge is largely scattered in the literature, we present here a checklist of these fossils, with relevant data about each species' type locality, stratum and age, and illustrating the type specimens whenever possible. Moreover, some taxonomical problems are highlighted in the hope of garnering attention for future research.
Although Aplysia depilans is a widely known European species and the type species of the genus, the distinctions that separate it from other related congeners are not entirely clear. Aimed at improving this scenario, a detailed morphological description is performed herein, showing some unprecedented and useful features. Based on our anatomical examination, this study has found the opaline gland to be dark in colour, as well as a metapodium with an indistinctly delimited pedal sucker, a crop divided into two equal chambers of similar volume by a circular muscle, gizzard plates arranged in groups, and a peculiar penial sheath structure. All of these characters appear to be significantly different from the other species, based on a review of the anatomical literature and several examined samples of ongoing studies. Our central objective is to provide new data on the anatomy of the type species of Aplysiidae; and, based on topological evidence, to propose a new terminology and possible homologies to some important characters, such as parapodia lobation, cephalic tentacles, crop, penial sheath, gizzard plates and visceral ganglion in anaspideans, for future phylogenetic analysis. The subgenus Subaplysia Medina, Collins & Walsh, 2005 is regarded as a junior synonym of subgenus Aplysia Linnaeus, 1767.
The Japanese land snail Ovachlamys fulgens is reported for the first time in Brazil. We recorded the species in 2015 and 2017 in the municipalities of Santos and São Vicente in the metropolitan region of Baixada Santista, São Paulo state, southeastern Brazil. We found the species in an urban park and in a secondary forest altered by exotic plants. As this species is considered a pest and is capable of transmitting disease to humans, we propose that urgent measures be taken by the Brazilian government to control its populations.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.