Monotygma
Encyclopedia
Monotygma is a genus
Genus
In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...

 of very small sea snail
Snail
Snail is a common name applied to most of the members of the molluscan class Gastropoda that have coiled shells in the adult stage. When the word is used in its most general sense, it includes sea snails, land snails and freshwater snails. The word snail without any qualifier is however more often...

s, pyramidellid
Pyramidellidae
Pyramidellidae, common name the pyram family, or pyramid shells, is a voluminous taxonomic family of mostly small and minute ectoparasitic sea snails, marine heterobranch gastropod molluscs or micromolluscs....

 gastropod mollusks, or micromollusk
Micromollusk
A micromollusk is a descriptive term for a shelled mollusk which is extremely small, even at full adult size. The word is usually, but not exclusively, applied to marine mollusks, although in addition, numerous species of land snails and freshwater mollusks also reach adult size at very small...

s. This genus is currently placed in the subfamily Chrysallidinae
Chrysallidinae
Chrysallidinae is a taxonomic group of very small sea snails in the family Pyramidellidae.- Taxonomy :Chrysallidinae has been one of eleven recognized subfamilies of the gastropod family Pyramidellidae...

 of the family
Family (biology)
In biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus. As for the other well-known ranks, there is the option of an immediately lower rank, indicated by the...

 Odostomiidae. The status of this genus was for a long time confused, but the situation was clarified in a review by van Aartsen (1986).

This genus has become a synonym of Monotigma
Monotigma
Monotigma is a genus of sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the family Pyramidellidae, the pyrams and their allies.-External links:*...

G.B. Sowerby II, 1839

Life habits

Little is known about the biology of the members of this genus. As is true of most members of the Pyramidellidae
Pyramidellidae
Pyramidellidae, common name the pyram family, or pyramid shells, is a voluminous taxonomic family of mostly small and minute ectoparasitic sea snails, marine heterobranch gastropod molluscs or micromolluscs....

 sensu lato, they are most likely to be ectoparasites.

Species

Species within the genus Monotygma include:
  • Monotygma striata J. E. Gray, 1847 (Type species)
  • Monotygma eximia
  • Monotygma fulva A. Adams, 1851
  • Monotygma pareximia

External links

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