Alycaeidae W. T. Blanford, 1864

Pall-Gergely, Barna, Sajan, Sheikh, Tripathy, Basudev, Meng, Kaibaryer, Asami, Takahiro & Ablett, Jonathan D., 2020, Genus-level revision of the Alycaeidae (Gastropoda, Cyclophoroidea), with an annotated species catalogue, ZooKeys 981, pp. 1-220 : 1

Family Alycaeidae W. T. Blanford, 1864

Alycaeinae W.T. Blanford, 1864: 465.

Alycaeinae - Godwin-Austen, 1886: 186. (subfamily of Cyclophoridae ); Bouchet and Rocroi 2005: 23, 248; Bouchet et al. 2017: 28, 340. (subfamily of Cyclophoridae )

Alycaeidae - Kobelt & Möllendorff, 1897: 146; Egorov 2013: 33.

Diagnosis.

Shell with a complex gas exchange system consisting of a common external sutural tube and several extremely narrow, perpendicularly running microtunnels, formed by the outermost shell layer ( Páll-Gergely et al. 2016). Bursa copulatrix connecting to lateral side of ovarium.

Remarks.

In the past this group has been treated as a subfamily of the Cyclophoridae , and as a family of its own right. The complex gas exchange system, combined with the unique position of the bursa copulatrix (both are important synapomorphic characters), seems to justify the distinction of this group as an independent family.