Classification
Domain: Eukarya
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class:
Gastropoda
Order: Stylommatophora
Family: Polygyridae
Genus: Patera
Species: Patera leatherwoodi P. 1971
Patera Leatherwoodi
receives its name from the Latin word
patera meaning a low bowl,
or flattened dish, which described the shape of
Patera’s shell (Crane,
2012).
Domain:
The domain Eukarya contains
cells with a membrane bound nucleus and organelle (Hickman et al.,
2012).
Kingdom:
The kingdom Animalia contains
organisms that are heterotrophic, multicellular, and lack a cell
wall (Hickman et al., 2012).
Phylum:
Mollusks have bilaterally symmetric bodies with at least two cell layers, tissues and organs, and they also possess a gut with mouth and anus (Ramel, 2012). Within the mouth there is a unique structure called the radula, a rasping tongue like organ with rows of tiny chitinous teeth that point backward (Hickman, et al., 2012). Mollusks have a head-foot portion and a visceral mass portion (Hickman et al., 2012). The head-foot region contains feeding, cephalic sensory, where compared to the visceral mass that contains digestive, circulatory, respiratory, and reproductive organs (Hickman et al., 2012).
Class:
The Gastropoda class most often have shells, in one piece when
prominent, making them slow and even sometime sedentary organisms(Hickman et al., 2012).
Gastropods are mostly bilaterally symmetrical, but due to
torsion, a twisting process that occurs during development, the
visceral mass becomes asymmetrical (Hickman et al., 2012).
Order:
The order Stylommatophora contains air-breathing and terrestrial land snails (ZipcodeZoo, 2012). These animals have embryos that have a direct development, this is possible because the adults lay enclosed eggs where the larval stages are completed (Wilbur, 1984).
Family:
The family Polygyridae possess a shell that is without color
markings and usually of one color, the shell also varies in shape
from a glob cone shape to a lens shape (Pilsbry,
1948). The genitalia is
without a dart apparatus, also known as a love dart (Pilsbry, 1948).
The Polygyridae have a single band that is located toward the
back of the snail that localizes their free retractor muscles, as
well as their pedal muscles (Pilsbry, 1948).
Genus:
The genus Patera contains the
characteristics of having a distal vas deferens that has an
even-diameter without a flagellum (Emberton, 1995).
Patera also have a shell that is both hairless and
depressed (Emberton, 1995).
Species:
Patera leatherwoodi is
a species along with a few others that are closely related that
possess a shell that is most often oval-shaped as well as having
reflected lip (Emberton, 1995). This lip is uniform in width
throughout its two regions, palatal and basal (Emberton, 1995).