Ovulidae
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_2.jpg) Living Cyphoma gibbosum
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Ovulidae, common names the ovulids, cowry allies or false cowries, is a family of small to large predatory or parasitic sea snails, marine gastropod molluscs in the superfamily Cypraeoidea, the cowries and cowry allies.
When these snails are alive, the mantle completely covers the shell almost all of the time. Pictures of living animals usually show the brightly colored and decorated mantle, which looks very different from the often rather plain, shiny surface of the shell.
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[edit] Distribution
The ovulids are mostly tropical and subtropical, but a few species live in temperate waters.
[edit] Habitat
Ovulids live on, and eat, soft corals and sea fans, and they are usually regarded as ectoparasites of these sessile colonial organisms.
[edit] Shell decription
Ovulids mostly have smooth shiny shells with a very long aperture and a very low or invisible spire. The shell is often white, but in some species the shell is pink or reddish.
In a few species of ovulids, the shell quite closely resembles that of cowries. However in many other species, the shells are so elongate that they do not so much resemble the shells of that closely-related family.
[edit] Genera
- Aperiovula Cate, 1973
- Cymbovula Cate, 1974
- Cyphoma Röding, 1798
- Delonovolva
- Hiatovula
- Neosimnia P. Fischer, 1884
- Pedicularia Swainson, 1840
- Phenacovolva Iredale, 1930
- Primovula Thiele, 1925
- Pseudocyphoma Cate, 1973
- Pseudosimnia Schilder, 1927
- Simnia Risso, 1826
- Simnialena Cate, 1973
- Spiculata
- Subsimnia
- Volva Linnaeus, 1758
