This family is found worldwide, from the tropics to the poles.
Shell description
The shell of these snails has a blunt, heterostrophicprotoconch, which is often pointed sideways or wrapped up. Most species in the subfamily have shells which are smaller than 13 mm. The texture of these shells is most often smooth but sometimes sculptured in various forms such as ribs and spirals. Their color is mostly white, cream or yellowish, sometimes with red or brown lines. The teleoconch is dextrally coiled, but the larval shells are sinistral. This results in a sinistrally coiled protoconch. The columella has usually one, but sometimes several, spiral folds. The aperture is closed by an operculum.
Life habits
The Odostomiinae are ectoparasites, feeding mainly on other molluscs and on annelid worms, but some are known to feed on peanut worms and crustaceans.[7]
They do not have a radula. Instead their long proboscis is used to pierce the skin of its prey and suck up its fluids and soft tissues. The eyes on the grooved tentacles are situated toward the base of the tentacles. Between the head and the foot, a lobed process called the mentum ( = thin projection) is visible. These molluscs are hermaphrodites.
References
^Pelseneer, P. (1928). "Les Parasites des Mollusques et les Mollusques parasites". Bulletin de la Société Zoologique de France. 53: 158–189.
^Dinapoli, Angela; Carmen Zinnsmeister; Annette Klussmann-Kolb (10 September 2010). "New insights into the phylogeny of the Pyramidellidae (Gastropoda)". Journal of Molluscan Studies. 77 (1): 1–7. doi:10.1093/mollus/eyq027.
^Schander, C., van Aartsen, J. J., Corgan, J. C. (1999). "Families and genera of the Pyramidelloidea (Mollusca: Gastropoda)". Bollettino Malacologico. 34 (9–12): 145–166.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^Sneli J.-A. (1972). "Odostomia turrita found on Hommarus gammarus". Nautilus. 86 (1): 23–24.
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