Littoraria
Littoraria is a genus of sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the family Littorinidae, the winkles or periwinkles.
| Littoraria | |
|---|---|
| The shell of this individual of Littoraria irrorata is covered with the lichen Pyrenocollema halodytes | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Mollusca |
| Class: | Gastropoda |
| Subclass: | Caenogastropoda |
| Order: | Littorinimorpha |
| Superfamily: | Littorinoidea |
| Family: | Littorinidae |
| Subfamily: | Littorininae |
| Genus: | Littoraria Griffith & Pidgeon, 1834 |
| Type species | |
| Littorina pulchra Sowerby, 1832 | |
| Synonyms | |
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There are more than fifty species in this genus of which more than 20 species are believed to be synonyms of Littoraria scabra, a very variable species.
Many of the species in this genus occur in the Indo-West Pacific region and in the Tropical Eastern Pacific, where they are found in large numbers on the trunks, trees and prop roots of tropical mangrove forests a few metres above high tide level. These snails feed on the thin film of algae, epiphytes, fungi, diatoms and leaf epidermis of these mangroves. The species living on higher levels of the trees have thinner shells, and are more variable in shell colour.
Within this genus, Littoraria aberrans is the only ovoviviparous species with an intracapsular metamorphosis.