Siphonaria pectinata

Siphonaria pectinata, common name the striped false limpet, is a species of air-breathing sea snail or false limpet, a marine heterobranch gastropod mollusc in the family Siphonariidae.^[1]

Siphonaria pectinata
Siphonaria pectinata
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Mollusca
Class:	Gastropoda
Order:	Siphonariida
Family:	Siphonariidae
Genus:	Siphonaria
Species:	S. pectinata
Binomial name
Siphonaria pectinata (Linnaeus, 1758)
Synonyms
Mouretus adansonii Blainville, 1824 Patella pectinata Linnaeus, 1758 (original combination) Siphonaria adansonii Blainville, 1827 Siphonaria algesirae Quoy & Gaimard, 1832 Siphonaria algesirae var. depressa Locard, 1898 Siphonaria grisea (Gmelin, 1791) Siphonaria jonasi Dunker, 1853 Siphonaria mouret Sowerby G.B. I, 1825 Siphonaria mouret var. conica Pallary, 1900 Siphonaria mouret var. minor Pallary, 1900 Siphonaria mouret var. nigra Pallary, 1900 Siphonaria mouretus Blainville, 1824 Siphonaria striatocostata Dunker, 1846

Taxonomic status

Siphonaria pectinata (Linnaeus, 1758). Museum specimens, Naturalis

Siphonaria pectinata (Linnaeus, 1758) was thought to be a widespread species with an Amphiatlantic distribution. A 2015 molecular study clearly distinguished three lineages with no apparent connectivity.^[2] These lineages are now treated as three separate species. They are named as S. pectinata, restricted to the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean, S. naufragum (Stearns, 1872) from Florida and the Gulf of Mexico and S. placentula Menke, 1853 from the Cape Verde Archipelago.

The complete nucleotide sequence of the mitochondrial genome of Siphonaria pectinata has been available since 2008.^[3] As a result of this study, Grande et al. (2008)^[3] proposed that this species should be recognized as a member of the Opisthobranchia rather than the Pulmonata. It is now known that the Pulmonata are actually a group within the former Opisthobranchia and the term Heterobranchia is usually used to clarify this relationship.^[4]

Distribution

Striped false limpet in Ílhavo, Portugal

This species lives high in the intertidal zone on rocky shores in the North Atlantic Ocean, and the Mediterranean Sea. Populations in the Eastern Atlantic in the Gulf of Mexico, Florida and the Florida Keys are now known to belong to the sibling species, Siphonaria naufragum.^[2][5]