Megaspiridae Pilsbry, 1904

Breure, Abraham S. H. & Avila, Valentin Mogollon, 2016, Synopsis of Central Andean Orthalicoid land snails (Gastropoda, Stylommatophora), excluding Bulimulidae, ZooKeys 588, pp. 1-199 : 20

Taxon classification Animalia Stylommatophora Megaspiridae

Family Megaspiridae Pilsbry, 1904

Megaspiridae Pilsbry 1904 [1903-1904]: 175.

Remarks.

During ongoing phylogenetic research Breure and Romero (2012) showed that species attributed to Thaumastus belonged to different monophyletic clades. Consequently they have been classified accordingly. The Brazilian species Thaumastus (Thaumastus) achilles (Pfeiffer, 1853) and Thaumastus (Thaumastus) largillierti (Philippi, 1845) grouped with Megaspira species and are thus without much doubt placed in the Megaspiridae . As material of the type species Thaumastus (Thaumastus) hartwegi (Pfeiffer in Philippi, 1846)-occurring in Ecuador-has not been sequenced, the classification of the Andean species of this group remains tentative. Also for Thaumastus (Thaumastiella) no material could be analysed as yet, and its classification with this family is only provisional. The genus Paeniscutalus is also provisionally arranged under this family, awaiting a further clarification of the findings of Breure and Romero (2012). They found that the sole species classified with this genus, which they suggested to be a relict of an older group, appeared at the very basis of the phylogenetic tree of the Orthalicoidea .