Salt lake snails

Code: None allocated

Class Gastropoda: Subclass Prosobranchia: Order Monotocardia.

A small family comprising two genera, of which only one, Truncatella , is found in Australia. The family name Rissoidae Gray 1847 was recently given precedence over Truncatellidae Gray, 1840 (ICZN case 2699; Opinion-1664, 1992). The genus Coxiella , previously placed in Rissoidae, has been transferred to Pomatiopsidae.

The family is distributed in tropical to warm temperate seas, and the Australian species are distributed around the coastline. There are no records from south-west of Western Australia. Tasmanian records are only from the north of the island. The four Australian species are restricted to salt marsh and the supra-littoral zone where they live on the surface of mud or under leaf litter, in association with assimineids, amphibolids and ellobiids.

Reference:

Smith, B.J. and Kershaw, R.C. (1981) Tasmanian Land and Freshwater Molluscs. Fauna of Tasmania Handbook No. 5. Fauna of Tasmania Committee, Tasmania, Australia.