Vermetidae

Serpulorbis aff. sipho, copyright Des Beechey.

Belongs within: Hypsogastropoda.

The Vermetidae are a group of sedentary gastropods characterised by an irregularly coiled or contorted shell that is generally cemented to a hard substrate. Plankton is captured from the water column for food, either by filtering water through the gills or by capture with extruded mucous threads.

<==Vermetidae [Vermetimorpha, Vermetina, Vermetinia]
    |--Provermicularia circumcarinata TTE93
    |--Pseudobrochidium germanicum Grupe 1907 TTE93
    |--Laxispira Gabb 1877 KB99, BR17 [Laxispirinae]
    |    `--*L. lumbricalis Gabb 1877 BR17
    |--Magilina Velain 1877 P61
    |    `--*M. scapuliformis P61
    |--Burtinella Morch 1861 TTE93, B59
    |    `--B. damesi (Noetlin 1885) TTE93
    |--Novastoa Finlay 1927 P61 [incl. Siphonium Mörch 1859 non Browne 1789 F27]
    |    |--*N. lamellosa (Hutton 1873) [=Siphonium lamellosum] P61
    |    `--‘Siphonium’ margaritarum [=Aletes margaritarum] C64
    |--Vermiculus C64
    |    |--V. effusus [=Siphonium effusus, Vermetus effusus] C64
    |    `--V. pellucidus (see below for synonymy) C64
    |--‘Aletes’ Carpenter 1857 non Rafinesque 1815 O27
    |    |--*A. carinatus [=Vermetus carinatus] O27
    |    |--A. centiquadrus (Valenciennes 1846) O27 (see below for synonymy)
    |    `--A. squamigerus Carpenter 1856 O27 [=Thylacodes squamigera C64; incl. T. squamigera var. pennata]
    |--Thylacodes C64
    |    |--T. cruciformis [incl. T. cruciformis var. erythrosclera, T. cruciformis var. lumbricella] C64
    |    |--T. decussatus C64
    |    |--T. oryzata [incl. T. oryzata var. annulata] C64
    |    `--T. ruesei C64
    |--Spiroglyphus Daudin 1800 O27
    |    |--*S. annulatus (Daudin 1800) O27, IZ77 [=Vermetus annulatus O27]
    |    |--S. albidus [=Bivonia albida] C64
    |    |--S. cristatus [=Vermetus cristatus] PP64
    |    |--S. irregularis (d’Orbigny 1842) HW78
    |    `--S. lituellus Mörch 1861 O27
    |--Bivonia Gray 1850 O27
    |    |--*B. triquetra O27 [=B. sutilis var. triquetra C64]
    |    |--B. compacta Carpenter 1864 O27
    |    |--B. contorta C64
    |    |--B. glomerata O27
    |    |--B. quoyi [incl. B. quoyi var. variegata] C64
    |    `--B. sutilis [incl. B. sutilis var. major] C64
    |--Dendropoma Mörch 1861 [Dendropomatinae, Dendropominae] BR05
    |    |--*D. lituella (Mörch 1861) BR17 [=Siphonium lituella BR17; incl. Stoa ammonitiformis C64]
    |    |--D. corallinaceum (Tomlin 1939) H78
    |    |--D. irregulare H79
    |    |--D. maximum H79
    |    |--D. megamastum (see below for synonymy) C64
    |    |--D. petraeum H79
    |    `--D. tholia Keen & Morton 1960 H78
    |--Petaloconchus Lea 1843 O27
    |    |--*P. sculpturatus [=Vermetus sculpturatus] O27
    |    |--P. anellum (Mörch 1861) O27 [=Vermetis anellum O27, Vermetus (Strebloceras) anellum C64, Vermiculum anellum O27]
    |    |--P. complicatus Dall 1908 O27
    |    |--P. macrophragma Carpenter 1857 O27 [=Vermetus (Macrophragma) macrophragma C64]
    |    |--P. montereyensis Dall 1919 O27
    |    |--P. nigricans (Dall 1884) IZ77
    |    `--P. (Anguinella) virginica (Conrad 1839) P12
    |--Vermetus Daudin 1800 [Vermetinae] BR05
    |    |--*V. adansonii Daudin 1800 BR17
    |    |--V. allii H79
    |    |--V. arenarius PP64
    |    |--V. (Thylacodus) contortus (see below for synonymy) C64
    |    |--V. grandis C60
    |    |--V. lyngbyanus N79
    |    |--V. moniliferus H86
    |    |--V. planorbis K10
    |    |--V. spiratus C60
    |    `--V. triqueter [incl. V. triqueter f. gregarius] PP64
    `--Serpulorbis Sassi 1827 [Polyphragmata] H78
         |--S. aotearoicus Morton 1951 P61
         |--S. (Serpulorbis) aureus Hughes 1978 H78
         |--S. decussatus (Gmelin 1791) S11
         |--S. granifera (Say 1824) P12
         |--S. imbricata ZLK11
         |--S. lornensis Marwick 1926 F27
         |--S. maorianus (Powell 1937) P61
         |--S. natalensis (Mörch 1862) H78
         |--S. sipho M54 [=Vermicularia sipho F27]
         |--S. squamigerus (Carpenter 1857) H78 (see below for synonymy)
         `--S. zelandicus (Quoy & Gaimard 1834) P61

Aletes centiquadrus (Valenciennes 1846) O27 [=Vermetus centiquadrus O27; incl. V. (Aletes) centiquadrus var. bridgesii C64, V. (A.) centiquadrus var. maxima C64, V. panamensis C64, V. peronii C64, V. (Aletes) centiquadrus var. siphonata C64, V. (A.) centiquadrus var. tulipa C64]

Dendropoma megamastum [=Siphonium (Dendropoma) megamastum; incl. S. (D.) megamastum var. centiquadra, Aletes centiquadrus var. imbricatus] C64

Serpulorbis squamigerus (Carpenter 1857) H78 [=Aletes squamigerus C64, Thylacodes squamigera C64; incl. T. squamigera var. pennata]

Vermetus (Thylacodus) contortus [incl. V. (T.) contortus var. contortula, V. (T.) contortus var. corrodens, V. (T.) contortus var. favosa, V. (T.) contortus var. indentata, V. (T.) contortus var. repens] C64

Vermiculus pellucidus [incl. Vermi. pellucidus var. castanea, Vermi. pellucidus var. cinnamomina, Vermi. pellucidus var. crassa, Vermi. pellucidus var. discifer, Vermetus eburneus, Vermetus glomeratus, Vermetus hindsii, Vermiculus pellucidus var. laquearis, Vermetus lumbricalis, Serpula panamensis, Vermi. pellucidus var. planorboides, Serpula regularis, Vermi. pellucidus var. tigrina, Vermi. pellucidus var. volubilis] C64

*Type species of generic name indicated

REFERENCES

[B59] Boreham, A. U. E. 1959. Cretaceous fossils from the Chatham Islands. Transactions of the Royal Society of New Zealand 86 (1): 119–125.

[BR05] Bouchet, P., & J.-P. Rocroi. 2005. Classification and nomenclator of gastropod families. Malacologia 47 (1–2): 1–397.

[BR17] Bouchet, P., J.-P. Rocroi, B. Hausdorf, A. Kaim, Y. Kano, A. Nützel, P. Parkhaev, M. Schrödl & E. E. Strong. 2017. Revised classification, nomenclator and typification of gastropod and monoplacophoran families. Malacologia 61 (1–2): 1–526.

[C64] Carpenter, P. P. 1864. Supplementary report on the present state of our knowledge with regard to the Mollusca of the west coast of North America. Report of the British Association for the Advancement of Science 33: 517–686.

[C60] Cox, L. R. 1960. Gastropoda: general characteristics of Gastropoda. In: Moore, R. C. (ed.) Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology pt I. Mollusca 1: Mollusca—General Features, Scaphopoda, Amphineura, Monoplacophora, Gastropoda—General Features, Archaeogastropoda and some (mainly Paleozoic) Caenogastropoda and Opisthobranchia pp. I84–I169. Geological Society of America, and University of Kansas Press.

[F27] Finlay, H. J. 1927. A further commentary on New Zealand molluscan systematics. Transactions and Proceedings of the New Zealand Institute 57: 320–485.

[HW78] Hoffman, D. L., & P. J. Weldon. 1978. Flight responses of two intertidal gastropods (Prosobranchia: Trochidae) to sympatric predatory gastropods from Barbados. Veliger 20 (4): 361–366.

[H78] Hughes, R. N. 1978. A new species of Serpulorbis (Gastropoda: Vermetidae) from South Africa. Veliger 20 (3): 288–291.

[H79] Hughes, R. N. 1979. Coloniality in Vermetidae (Gastropoda). In: Larwood, G., & B. R. Rosen (eds) Biology and Systematics of Colonial Organisms pp. 243–253. Academic Press: London.

[H86] Hutton, F. W. 1886. The Mollusca of the Pareora and Oamaru systems of New Zealand. Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales, series 2, 1 (1): 205–237.

[IZ77] Ingham, R. E., & J. A. Zischke. 1977. Prey preferences of carnivorous intertidal snails in the Florida Keys. Veliger 20 (1): 49–51.

[KB99] Kiel, S., & K. Bandel. 1999. The Pugnellidae, a new stromboidean family (Gastropoda) from the Upper Cretaceous. Paläontologische Zeitschrift 73 (1–2): 47–58.

[K10] Kostina, E. E. 2010. Distribution of macrobenthic communities in the intertidal zone of the Vietnamese islands. In: China-Russia Bilateral Symposium: Proceedings of the China-Russia Bilateral Symposium of "Comparison on Marine Biodiversity in the Northwest Pacific Ocean", 10–11 October 2010, Qingdao (China) pp. 109–111. Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences; A. V. Zhirmunsky Institute of Marine Biology, Far East Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

[M54] Macpherson, J. H. 1954. Molluscs (sea shells and snails). In: Willis, J. M. (ed.) The Archipelago of the Recherche pp. 55–63. Australian Geographical Society: Melbourne.

[N79] Norman, A. M. 1879. The Mollusca of the fiords near Bergen, Norway. Journal of Conchology 2: 8–77.

[O27] Oldroyd, I. S. 1927. The Marine Shells of the West Coast of North America vol. 2 pt. 3. Stanford University Press: Stanford University (California).

[PP64] Peres, J. M., & J. Picard. 1964. Nouveau manuel de bionomie benthique de la mer Mediterranee. Recueil des Travaux de la Station Marine d'Endoume, Bulletin 31 (27): 5–137.

[P12] Petuch, E. J. 2012. Miocene asteroid impacts: proposed effects on the biogeography and extinction patterns of eastern North American gastropods. In: Talent, J. A. (ed.) Earth and Life: Global biodiversity, extinction intervals and biogeographic perturbations through time pp. 967–981. Springer.

[P61] Powell, A. W. B. 1961. Shells of New Zealand: An illustrated handbook 4^th ed. Whitcombe and Tombs Limited: Christchurch.

[S11] Simone, L. R. L. 2011. Phylogeny of the Caenogastropoda (Mollusca), based on comparative morphology. Arquivos de Zoologia 42 (4): 161–323.

[TTE93] Tracey, S., J. A. Todd & D. H. Erwin. 1993. Mollusca: Gastropoda. In: Benton, M. J. (ed.) The Fossil Record 2 pp. 131–167. Chapman & Hall: London.

[ZLK11] Zou, S., Q. Li & L. Kong. 2011. Additional gene data and increased sampling give new insights into the phylogenetic relationships of Neogastropoda, within the caenogastropod phylogenetic framework. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 61: 425–435.

Last updated: 12 September 2021.