ORCULIDAE STEENBERG, 1925

Harl, Josef, Haring, Elisabeth, Asami, Takahiro, Sittenthaler, Marcia, Sattmann, Helmut & Páll-Gergely, Barna, 2017, Molecular systematics of the land snail family Orculidae reveal polyphyly and deep splits within the clade Orthurethra (Gastropoda: Pulmonata), Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 181, pp. 778-794 : 790-791

FAMILY ORCULIDAE STEENBERG, 1925

Orculidae Steenberg, 1925: 201 .

Type genus: Orcula Held, 1837 , type species Pupa dolium Draparnaud, 1801 (subsequent designation by Gray, 1847).

Included genera: Alvariella Hausdorf, 1996 ; Orcula Held, 1837 (with the subgenera Illyriobanatica Páll-Gergely & Deli, 2013 and Hausdorfia Páll-Gergely & Irikov, 2013; described in Páll-Gergely et al., 2013); Orculella Steenberg, 1925 ; Pilorcula Germain, 1912 ; Schileykula Gittenberger, 1983 ; Sphyradium de Charpentier, 1837 ; and Nordsieckula Harl & Harzhauser, 2014 (fossil; described in Harzhauser et al., 2014).

Diagnosis: Shell mostly dextral, cylindrical, conical or ovoid; protoconch with spiral striation; teleoconch from smooth to ribbed, often with periostracal filaments; lower end of parietal and columellar lamellae visible in the aperture at straight view [very rarely reduced, as in Orculella bulgarica bulgarica (Hesse, 1915); see Hausdorf, 1996]; columellar and parietal lamellae long; columellar lamellae 1–4 in number; palatal plicae present or absent; subangularis present in Nordsieckula and some Orculella species; penial caecum always present; penial appendix present or absent; diverticulum of bursa copulatrix present or absent.

Distribution: Europe, Caucasus, Central Asia, Asia Minor to the Levantine coast, some coastal areas of Northern Africa ( Hausdorf, 1996; Schileyko, 1998).

Remarks: Our present concept of Orculidae as a monophyletic group agrees with that of the Orculinae sensu Schileyko (1998, 2012). Based on shell morphological characters, the genus Nordsieckula was established by Harl & Harzhauser (in Harzhauser et al., 2014) for two fossil species, Nordsieckula subconica ( Sandberger, 1858) (Central Europe, Late Oligocene to Early Miocene) and Nordsieckula falkneri ( Hausdorf, 1995) (Central Europe, Middle Miocene), both previously classified into the genus Orcula . The two species have typical orculid shells with a central parietal lamella and two columellar lamellae reaching the aperture margin. A subangularis is present in both fossil species and also in some of the recent Orculella species. Harl et al. (2014b) propose the hypothesis that the younger species, N. falkneri , might represent the most recent common ancestor of Orcula , Orculella and Sphyradium [and Schileykula ].