Pilsbrylia, a dextral-shelled door snail from South America (Gastropoda, Clausiliidae)

Abstract

The land snail genus Pilsbrylia Hylton Scott, 1952 has been recently shown to not belong to the superfamily to which it was originally assigned (i.e., the Orthalicoidea), instead pointing out a relationship with the Clausilioidea. In this study, we included the type species of the genus in a multi-marker molecular phylogenetic framework to reassess its family-level classification. Our results show that Pilsbrylia belongs to family Clausiliidae (known as ‘door snails’) and more specifically, to subfamily Peruiniinae. This family is unique among stylommatophorans for consisting almost exclusively of animals with sinistral (left-handed) shells, whilst Pilsbrylia has a “typical” dextral shell.