Pneumodermatidae

Pneumodermatidae
Drawing of a larva of a species in the genus Pneumoderma
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Mollusca
Class:	Gastropoda
Clade:	Euopisthobranchia
Superfamily:	Clionoidea
Family:	Pneumodermatidae (Latreille, 1825)
Genera
Pneumoderma Pneumodermopsis Schizobrachium Spongiobranchaea Abranchaea Platybrachium

The Pneumodermatidae are a family of sea angels, or small floating predatory sea snails or sea slugs. They are pelagic marine heterobranch opisthobranch gastropod mollusks in the clade Gymnosomata.

These small pelagic snails lack shells (except in their early embryonic stage). They are carnivores, equipped with swimming parapoda (fleshy, wing-like outgrowths), strong jaws, and grasping tentacles, often with suckers resembling those of cephalopods.^[1]

Genera[]

Genera within the family Pneumodermatidae include:

Genus: Pneumoderma de Roissy, 1805

• Oken, 1815
• van der Spoel & Pafort-van Iersel, 1982 – distribution: Sargasso Sea, length: 11.8 mm
• van Beneden, 1838 – distribution: Florida, Brazil, Mediterranean, length: 20 mm
• Lamarck, 1819 – distribution: Red Sea
• d'Orbigny, 1836 – distribution: Bermuda, oceanic, length: 25 mm, description: This pteropod grabs its prey with two powerful suckers, each with about 30 suctorial disks, then it bulges out its long proboscis.
  • • Dall, 1871
    • d'Orbigny, 1836

Genus: Pneumodermopsis Keferstein, 1862

• Pruvot-Fol, 1924
• (Gegenbaur, 1855) – distribution: circumglobal, oceanic, description: possesses five tentacles, each ending in a big suctorial disk
• Meisenheimer, 1905 – distribution: oceanic
• Bonnevie, 1913 – distribution: Bermuda, oceanic
• Massy, 1917
• (Boas, 1886) – distribution: Brazil, oceanic, length: 5 mm
• Pruvot-Fol, 1926
• Newman & greenwood, 1988 – Distribution: Australia.
• van der Spoel, 1973 – distribution: oceanic

Genus Schizobrachium Meisenheimer, 1903

• Meisenheimer, 1903 – distribution: oceanic

Genus Spongiobranchaea d'Orbigny, 1836

• d'Orbigny, 1836 – distribution: Argentina, Australia, sub-Antarctic, Antarctica, oceanic, length: 22 mm
• Pruvot-Fol, 1926 – distribution: oceanic image

Genus Abranchaea Zhan Fu-Sui, 1975

• Zhan Fu-Sui, 1975

Genus Platybrachium Minichev, 1976

References[]