Latia
| Latia | ||||||||||||
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Latia neritoides |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name of the family | ||||||||||||
| Latiidae | ||||||||||||
| Hutton , 1878 | ||||||||||||
| Scientific name of the genus | ||||||||||||
| Latia | ||||||||||||
| Gray , 1850 |
Latia is only to New Zealand occurring species in freshwater living cup-shaped worm from the order of snails (Pulmonata) and the only genus of the family Latiidae . There is no recognized German name. The family is counted here to the subordination of the water snail (Basommatophora).
features
The housings are cup-shaped, more or less longitudinally oval and appear blackish through the dark periostracum . The apex is hook-shaped. The animals can reach a maximum length of 12 mm and are reminiscent of the European river cap snail ( Ancylus fluviatilis ) due to the shell (but not the soft body ), which is why they were previously included in the (now dissolved) family Ancylidae.
A lamella is formed at the rear end of the shell, which merges into a lingula (a tongue-shaped appendix) on the right side. The lamella and lingula form attachment points for the foot muscles, so that the snail body is firmly connected to the shell, but is also not very mobile. As a result, once they get on their backs, the animals, unlike other cup-shaped freshwater snails, cannot straighten themselves up and attach themselves.
Anatomy and physiology
The animals breathe solely by absorbing the oxygen dissolved in the water. To do this, they have developed a secondary gill in the lung cavity. They feed on periphyton (algae, bacteria, fungi), which they scrape off the stone surface using the radula .
The animals, especially when disturbed, secrete a luminescent substance with their mucus , which is released in the manner of a light green, light-emitting cloud of water. The whole animal can also luminesce. The underlying chemical reaction is based on a flavoprotein ( luciferase ), which contains a light-emitting flavin group. These studies are based on the species Latia neritoides . It is currently the only known freshwater animal that shows such luminous phenomena without the help of bacteria; otherwise only known from marine and land organisms.
distribution and habitat
The representatives of this family occur only on the North Island of New Zealand. They can be found on or under stones in flowing water.
Although they are sensitive to pollution and to disturbances in the subsurface, the representatives of the Latiidae are not considered endangered.
Paleontology and evolution
The Latiidae are not known to be fossilized so far . Together with the Chilinidae family, which only occurs in South America, they form the Chilinoidea superfamily, which is a relatively original superfamily of the Hygrophila ( water snail in the sense of the word ).
Systematics
The genus (and thus the family) consists of three types:
- Latia climoi Starobogatov, 1986
- Latia lateralis (Gould, 1852)
- Latia neritoides Gray , 1850
Individual evidence
- ^ BJ Bowden: Some observations on a luminescent freshwater limpet from New Zealand. The Biological Bulletin 99 (1950): 373-380.
- ↑ O. Shimomura, FH Johnson, Y. Kohama: Reactions involved in bioluminescence systems of limpet (Latia neritoides) and liminous bacteria. PNAS 69 (1972): 2086-2089.
- ↑ Y. Ohmiya, S. Kojima, M. Nakamura, H. Niwa: Bioluminescence in the limpet-like snail, Latia neritoides. Bull. Chem. Soc. Japan 78 (2005): 1197-1205.
literature
- Arthur William Baden Powell: New Zealand Mollusca . HarperCollins, Auckland 1979, ISBN 0-00-216906-1