Fukuia

Fukuia
A live individual of Fukuia multistriata
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Mollusca
Class:	Gastropoda
Subclass:	Caenogastropoda
Order:	Littorinimorpha
Family:	Pomatiopsidae
Genus:	Fukuia Abbott & Hunter, 1949 [1]
Diversity [2]
3 species and "Fukuia" ooyagii

Fukuia is a genus of amphibious freshwater snails and land snails with an operculum, gastropod mollusks in the family Pomatiopsidae.

Distribution

The genus Fukuia is endemic to Honshu, Japan. ^[2] These snails occur especially in the northern and western part of Japan, on the coast of the Sea of Japan. ^[2] There is a unique climate in the Sea of Japan with high precipitation due to winter snowfall in the area of distribution of Fukuia. ^[2] These snails have been described as a "Japan Sea element". ^[2]

Map showing hypothesized paleodistribution of the genus Fukuia (Fukuia integra, Fukuia kurodai and Fukuia multistriata) in the Early Miocene (23-18 Ma).

Map showing hypothesized paleodistribution of the genus Fukuia in the Middle Pliocene to Late Pliocene (3.5-2 Ma).

Species

Species within the genus Fukuia include:

• Fukuia integra (Pilsbry, 1924) - synonym: Blanfordia integra Pilsbry, 1924, terrestrial ^[2]
• Fukuia kurodai Abbott & Hunter, 1949 - type species, ^[3] amphibious ^[2]
  • Fukuia kurodai kurodai Abbott & Hunter, 1949 ^[2]
  • Fukuia kurodai niigataensis Minato, 1973 ^[2]
• Fukuia multistriata Abbott & Hunter, 1949 - amphibious ^[2]

The speciation of genus Fukuia likely started around 7.2 million years ago in the Late Miocene. ^[2]

Unassigned to genus:

• Fukuia ooyagii Minato, 1982 - Aquatic species Fukuia ooyagii should be separated from Fukuia, and its generic assignment should be determined coupled with the investigation of its soft-part morphology. ^[2]

Ecology

Fukuia kurodai and Fukuia multistriata live amphibiously around rocky walls of steep valleys covered with ferns and bryophytes, and moistened by dripping water. ^[2] They live only along the mountain streamlets where such habitats are typically found, and often occur with pleurocerid freshwater snails. ^[2]

Fukuia integra lives as a terrestrial snail in inland forests. ^[2]

References

This article incorporates CC-BY-2.0 text from the reference ^[2]

1. Abbott & Hunter (1949). Proc. helminth. Soc. Wash. 16: 79.
2. Kameda Y. & Kato M. (2011). "Terrestrial invasion of pomatiopsid gastropods in the heavy-snow region of the Japanese Archipelago". BMC Evolutionary Biology 11: 118. doi : 10.1186/1471-2148-11-118 .
3. Davis G. M. (1979). "The origin and evolution of the gastropod family Pomatiopsidae, with emphasis on the Mekong river Triculinae". Academy of natural Sciences of Philadelphia, Monograph 20: 1-120. at Google books.

External links

• Media related to Fukuia at Wikimedia Commons