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Charopidae Hutton, 1884 |
| Charopidae | Hutton, T. 1884. [Title?].. |
| Remarks: | The Charopidae are closely related to the Endodontidae but are not confined to Pacific islands as are the Endodontidae. Outside the Pacific they are found in New Zealand, Australia, South America, South Africa, and St. Helena. They exhibit particular diversity in New Zealand and Australia.
Charopids are to some extent arboreal, in contrast to the exclusively ground-dwelling endodontids, and they generally do not adopt the umbilical egg-laying habit of the endodontids. They may as a result be less susceptible to ground-level habitat degredation and ant predation than are the endodontids, and hence appear to have persisted in relatively fair diversity. Nevertheless, the island by island distributions given here may well be incomplete because there has been insufficient survey work. The single species of Discocharopa is distinguished by its small size. Species of Graeffedon possess apertural barriers; those of Sinployea do not. More information on charopids in the Pacific can be found in volume 2 of Endodontoid land snails from Pacific Islands by Alan Solem (1983; listed in the bibliography towards the end of this guide). |