Achatinellidae


Achatinellidae is a family of tropical air-breathing land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusks in the superfamily Achatinelloidea.

Taxonomy

This is the only family in the superfamily Achatinelloidea.
The family Achatinellidae represents a diverse adaptive radiation. All species of tree-snail in Hawaii are believed to have come from a single ancestral snail. How that ancestral snail made the trip across the ocean is unknown. A longstanding theory is that a bird carried a notably smaller ancestor across the ocean and dropped it on the islands, as bird mediated dispersal has been documented in other snail species. Alternative theories include that it floating across the ocean on a mat of debris, or that it island hopped across the Pacific in a combination of the theories.
Subfamilies in the family Achatinellidae include:
In this family, the number of haploid chromosomes lies between 16 and 25.

Distribution

This family of snails occurs widely in the Pacific islands. They are at their most diverse in the Hawaiian group.

Genera

Genera in the family Achatinellidae include:
Achatinellinae
Auriculellinae
Elasmatininae
Pacificellinae
Tekoulininae
Tornatellidinae
Tornatellininae
unsorted