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Littoraria

Littoraria is a genus of sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the family Littorinidae, the winkles or periwinkles.

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 metamorphosis.

Species

Species in the genus Littoraria include:

Species brought into synonymy:
  • Littoraria dantaae <small>Y.-F. Fang, Y.-J. Peng, G.-J. Zhang & J. He, 2012</small>: synonym of Mainwaringia dantaae <small>Y.-F. Fang, Y.-J. Peng, G.-J. Zhang & J. He, 2012</small>
  • Littoraria glabrata <small>Philippi, 1846</small> : synonym of Littoraria coccinea glabrata <small>(Philippi, 1846)</small>
  • Littoraria kraussi <small>(Rosewater, 1970)</small>: synonym of Littoraria coccinea glabrata <small>(Philippi, 1846)</small>
  • Littoraria pulchra <small>Gray, 1833</small>: synonym of Littoraria zebra <small>(Donovan, 1825)</small> (junior synonym)

References

Further reading