Classification

Millerelix lithica: "Stone Lip Tooth"

Domain: Eukarya
    Kingdom: Animalia
        Phylum: Mollusc
            Class: Gastropoda
                Order: Stylommatophora
                    Family: Polygyridae
                        Genus: Millerelix
                            Species: Millerelix lithica

Picture from the Family Polygyridae

Animalia:
Made up of multicellular heterotrophic organisms, Animalia is one of the three broad Kingdoms of taxonomy. The organisms within this category have cells with no cell wall and have evolved into over 1.5 million different species (eol, 2012).

Mollusca;
Category of invertebrates characterized most commonly by their muscular foot used for locomotion, attachment, digging, swimming, and more (UCMP, 2004).

Gastropoda: (Cuvier, 1797)
This class of Mollusca is characterized by its single coiled shell (not present in some slugs) and distinguished head with tentacles (UCMP, 2004).

Pulmonate:
Group of snails, usually terrestrial, that contain an enclosed lung or lung like tissue (Craig, 2004).

Stylommatophora:
Order of terrestrial snails and slugs with two pairs of tentacles, of which the anterior tentacles contain the eyes (eol, 2012).

Polygyridae:
A family of snails that have solid earth tone coloring and rarely banded flattened to globose-conic shell (Pilsbry, 1940).

Millerelix: (Pratt, 1981)
Members of the this genus are known as liptooth snails. This genus has a distinct monotone shell with uniform whorls and a long slender penis described by Pratt in 1981.

Millerelix lithica: (Hubricht, 1961)
stone liptooth

Click to learn about the Millerelix lithica Classification Controversy

last updated November 29, 2012