Classification

Domain: Eukarya

                Kingdom: Anamalia

                                Phylum: Mollusca

                                                Class: Gastropoda

                                                                Order: Stylommatophora

                                                                                Family: Polygyridae

                                                                                                Genus: Polygyra

                                                                                                                Species: cereolus

Scientific name: Polygyra cereolus (Muhlfield, 1816)

Common name: Southern Flatcoil

Domain Eukarya: classified as organisms whose cells contain membrane bound nuclei (Hickman et al. 2011).

Kingdom Anamalia: classified as multicellular organisms that are predominantly heterotrophic, some are parasitic (Hickman et al. 2011).

Phylum Mollusca: meaning "soft body" in latin, mollusks are characteristic of having their body divided into a head-foot section and a visceral mass section (Hickman et al, 2011). Some synapmorphies shared by this Phylum include a radula, mantle, mantle cavity, shell, muscular foot and open circulatory systems (except those found in Class Cephalopoda)                         (Hickman et al, 2011).

Class Gastropoda: meaning "stomach foot" in latin, gastropods consist of slow-moving or sedentary animals that have an asymmetrical  visceral mass due to the process of torsion (Hickman et al, 2011). Terrestrial gastropods develop directly, while marine and freshwater species develop indirectly through a trochophore and a veliger larval stage (Hickman et al, 2011). There are approximately 70,000 living species of gastropods and another 15,000 fossil species known (Hickman et al, 2011). 

Family Polygyridae: As stated by Kathryn Perez of the University of Alabama in her 2004 Centenary Research Grant Report, this family of land snails is native to North America, with a large diversity amongst their habitats, size and shape of their shells. Polygyrids can be approximately 5-32 mm in diameter, and have shells many shapes including subglobose, and discoidal (Perez, 2004).

Genus Polygyra: consist of snails with depressed to discoidal shells that can be be both umbilicate or perforate (Pilsbry, 1940). Polygyra have a continuous peristome and a raised parietal lamina that connects the ends of the reflected lip (Pilsbry, 1940). Reproductive distinctions include a penis with a simple wall and lack of a sheath, no papilla or verge, and a short, slender spermathecal duct (Pilsbry, 1940). A ribbed jaw and the central and lateral teeth of the radula with ectocones on them is also characteristic of this genus (Pilsbry, 1940).

Species cereolus: This species has a very long lung, a moderately long kidney, an elongated, slender vagina and moderately convoluted hermaphrodite duct (Pilsbry, 1940). The shell is discoidal and varies from white to wood brown or fawn with gray or pale brown spots or radial streaks on the base(Pilsbry, 1940). P. cereolus also has a umbilicus with a comparatively small central cavity, and internal lamina (Pilsbry, 1940).