Limacidae
Family of keelback slugs
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Limacidae, also known by their common name the keelback slugs, are a taxonomic family of medium-sized to very large, air-breathing land slugs, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod molluscs in the superfamily Limacoidea.
| Limacidae | |
|---|---|
| |
| A live individual of Limax maximus | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Mollusca |
| Class: | Gastropoda |
| Order: | Stylommatophora |
| Superfamily: | Limacoidea |
| Family: | Limacidae Batsch, 1789[1] |
| Diversity[2] | |
| 13 genera, 107 species (as of 2025) | |
Distribution
The distribution of the family Limacidae is the western Palearctic.[3] There are 28 species of Limacidae in Russia and adjacent countries.[4]
Cytology
In this family, the number of haploid chromosomes lies between 21 and 25 and also lies between 31 and 35 (according to the values in this table).[5]
Genera
Currently recognised genera in the family Limacidae are:[2]
subfamily Eumilacinae Likharev & Wiktor, 1980[2]
- Eumilax O. Boettger, 1881 - type genus of the subfamily Eumilacinae
- Metalimax Simroth, 1896
subfamily Limacinae Batsch, 1789[2]
- Ambigolimax Pollonera, 1887;[6] formerly considered a subgenus of Lehmannia[7]
- Bielzia Clessin, 1887 – with the only species Bielzia coerulans M. Bielz, 1851. Some authors, for example Russian malacologists,[4] have classified Bielzia within its own family Bielzidae (= Limacopsidae) or subfamily Bielzinae, but a molecular phylogeny has subsequently placed it within Limacinae.[7]
- Caspilimax P. Hesse, 1926[4]
- Gigantomilax O. Boettger, 1883[4]
- Lehmannia Heynemann, 1863;[2] formerly considered a subgenus of Limax
- Limacus Lehmann, 1864; sometimes considered a subgenus of Limax
- Limax Linnaeus, 1758[4] – type genus of Limacidae; c. half the recognised species in the family
- Malacolimax Malm, 1868;[4] formerly considered a subgenus of Limax
- Svanetia Hesse, 1926[8]
- Turcomilax Simroth, 1902[2]
- Weltersia Giusti et al. 2021 – with the only species W. obscura Giusti et al. 2021[9]
Cladograms
A cladogram showing the phylogenic relationships of this family to other families within the limacoid clade:[3]
A molecular-based phylogeny of the genera within the Limacidae.[7] Metalimax and Caspilimax were not included in the study.
| Limacidae |
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Ecology
Parasites of slugs in this family include larvae of the marsh flies Sciomyzidae, and others.
